VII.  DO NOT MEDDLE.

1.  About twenty years ago there lived a singular gentleman in the Old Hall among the elm trees.  He was about three-score years of age, very rich, and somewhat odd in many of his habits, but for generosity and benevolence he had no equal.

2.  No poor cottager stood in need of comforts, which he was not ready to supply; no sick man or woman languished for want of his assistance; and not even a beggar, unless a known impostor, went empty-handed from the Hall.  Like the village pastor described in Goldsmith’s poem of “The Deserted Village,”

  “His house was known to all the vagrant train;
  He chid their wand’rings, but relieved their pain;
  The long-remembered beggar was his guest,
  Whose beard descending swept his aged breast.”

3.  Now it happened that the old gentleman wanted a boy to wait upon him at table, and to attend him in different ways, for he was very fond of young people.  But much as he liked the society of the young, he had a great aversion to that curiosity in which many young people are apt to indulge.  He used to say, “The boy who will peep into a drawer will be tempted to take something out of it; and he who will steal a penny in his youth will steal a pound in his manhood.”

4.  No sooner was it known that the old gentleman was in want of a boy than twenty applications were made for the situation; but he determined not to engage anyone until he had in some way ascertained that he did not possess a curious, prying disposition.

5.  On Monday morning seven lads, dressed in their Sunday clothes, with bright and happy faces, made their appearance at the Hall, each of them desiring to obtain the situation.  Now the old gentleman, being of a singular disposition had prepared a room in such a way that he might easily know if any of the young people who applied were given to meddle unnecessarily with things around them, or to peep into cupboards and drawers.  He took care that the lads who were then at Elm Tree Hall should be shown into this room one after another.

6.  And first, Charles Brown was sent into the room, and told that he would have to wait a little.  So Charles sat down on a chair near the door.  For some time he was very quiet, and looked about him; but there seemed to be so many curious things in the room that at last he got up to peep at them.

7.  On the table was placed a dish cover, and Charles wanted sadly to know what was under it, but he felt afraid of lifting it up.  Bad habits are strong things; and, as Charles was of a curious disposition, he could not withstand the temptation of taking one peep.  So he lifted up the cover.

8.  This turned out to be a sad affair; for under the dish cover was a heap of very light feathers; part of the feathers, drawn up by a current of air, flew about the room, and Charles, in his fright, putting the cover down hastily, puffed the rest of them off the table.