Active and healthy, stout and young, Now tell me reader if you'can, What man more blest could be? To make his comfort quite complete, Frugal and neat and good was she, Where is the lord, or where the squire, Each night when he returned from work, While he caress'd his child. One blooming babe was all he had, The solace of their care. O what could ruin such a life, O what could change so kind a heart, With grief the cause I must relate, The dismal cause reveal; 'Twas EVIL COMPANY and DRINK, The source of every ill. A Cooper A Cooper came to live hard by, This man could tell a merry tale, And those who heard him sing or talk, But vain and vicious was the song, Our Carpenter delighted much At first he did not care to drink,, He said the Cooper's company, His hammer now neglected lay, Half finish'd wheels and broken tools Were strew'd about his yard.. Το To get him to attend his work His cheerful ev'nings now no more For not his drunken nights alone No handsome Sunday suit was left, No more his church he did frequent, Where once the Sunday is mispent, The cottage mortgag'd for its worth, The pewter dishes, one by one, Where pawn'd, till none was left; And wife and babe at home remained By By chance he call'd at home one night, His empty cupboard well he knew Then to her husband gave a knife, In haste he tore the cover off, "There lies thy babe, the mother said, The Carpenter, struck to the heart, pray. From the same hour the Cooper more Nor would he to the alehouse go See Berquin's Gardener. His His wife forgave him all the past, By lab'ring hard, and working late, His cottage was at length redeem'd, His Sundays now at church were spent, The following verse himself he made, The drunkard murders child and wife, Whether he stabs them with his knife, THE GIN-SHOP; OR: A: PEEP INTO A PRISON. Z. OOK thro' the land from north to south,. And look from east to west; And see what is to Englishmen, Of life the deadliest pest.. It |