The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper | Page 2

shook off the
luxury of sleep, and rose again to toil with weary effort.
"Honest Roger," as the neighbours called him, was a fair specimen of a
class which has been Britain's boast for ages, and may be still again, in
measure, but at present that glory appears to be departing: a class much
neglected, much enduring; thoroughly English--just, industrious, and
patient; true to the altar, and loyal to the throne; though haply shaken
somewhat now from both those noble faiths--warped in their principles,
and blunted in their feelings, by lying doctrines and harsh economies; a
class--I hate the cold cant term--a race of honourable men, full of cares,
pains, privations--but of pleasures next to none; whose life at its most
prosperous estate is labour, and in death we count him happy who did
not die a pauper. Through them, serfs of the soil, the earth yields indeed
her increase, but it is for others; from the fields of plenty they glean a
scanty pittance, and fill the barns to bursting, while their children cry
for bread. Not that Roger for his part often wanted work; he was the
best hand in the parish, and had earned of his employers long ago the
name of Steady Acton; but the fair wages for a fair day's labour were
quite another thing, and the times went very hard for him and his. A
man himself may starve, while his industry makes others fat: and a
liberal landlord all the winter through may keep his labourers in work,
while a crafty, overbearing bailiff mulcts them in their wages.
For the outward man, Acton stood about five feet ten, a gaunt, spare,
and sinewy figure, slightly bent; his head sprinkled with gray; his face
marked with those rigid lines, which tell, if not of positive famine, at
least of too much toil on far too little food; in his eye, patience and
good temper; in his carriage, a mixture of the sturdy bearing, necessary
to the habitual exercise of great muscular strength, together with that
gait of humility--almost humiliation--which is the seal of oppression
upon poverty. He might be about forty, or from that to fifty, for hunger,
toil, and weather had used him the roughest; while, for all beside, the

patched and well-worn smock, the heavily-clouted high-laced boots, a
dingy worsted neck-tie, and an old felt hat, complete the picture of
externals.
But, for the matter of character within, Roger is quite another man. If
his rank in this world is the lowest, many potentates may envy him his
state elsewhere. His heart is as soft, as his hand is horny; with the
wandering gipsy or the tramping beggar, thrust aside, perhaps
deservedly, as impudent impostors from the rich man's gate, has he
often-times shared his noon-day morsel: upright and sincere himself, he
thinks as well of others: he scarcely ever heard the Gospels read in
church, specially about Eastertide, but the tears would trickle down his
weather-beaten face: he loves children--his neighbour's little ones as
well as his own: he will serve any one for goodness' sake without
reward or thanks, and is kind to the poor dumb cattle: he takes quite a
pride in his little rod or two of garden, and is early and late at it, both
before and after the daily sum of labour: he picks up a bit of knowledge
here and there, and somehow has contrived to amass a fund of
information for which few would give him credit from his common
looks; and he joins to that stock of facts a natural shrewdness to use his
knowledge wisely. Though with little of what is called sentiment, or
poetry, or fancy in his mind (for harsh was the teaching of his
childhood, and meagre the occasions of self-culture ever since), the
beauty of creation is by no means lost upon him, and he notices at
times its wisdom too. With a fixed habit of manly piety ever on his lips
and ever in his heart, he recognises Providence in all things, just, and
wise, and good. More than so; simply as a little child who endures the
school-hour for the prospect of his play-time, Roger Acton bears up
with noble meekness against present suffering, knowing that his work
and trials and troubles are only for a little while, but his rest and his
reward remain a long hereafter. He never questioned this; he knew right
well Who had earned it for him; and he lived grateful and obedient,
filling up the duties of his humble station. This was his faith, and his
works followed it. He believed that God had placed him in his lot, to be
a labourer, and till God's earth, and, when his work is done, to be sent
on better service in some