There is great magic in that word "Mr," when used to men of low
degree, and in "Squire" for those just a notch higher. Servitude, at
best, is but a hard lot. To surrender your will to another, to come
and go at his bidding, and to answer a bell as a dog does a whistle,
ain't just the lot one would choose, if a better one offered. A master
may forget this, a servant never does. The great art, as well as one
of the great Christian duties, therefore, is not to make him feel it.
Bidding is one thing, and commanding is another. If you put him on
good terms with himself, he is on good terms with you, and affection
is a stronger tie than duty. The vanity of mankind is such, that you
always have the ingratitude of helps dinned into your ears, from one
year's end to another, and yet these folk never heard of the
ingratitude of employers, and wouldn't believe there was such a thing
in the world, if you were to tell them. Ungrateful, eh! Why, didn't I
pay him his wages? wasn't he well boarded? and didn't I now and then
let him go to a frolic? Yes, he wouldn't have worked without pay. He
couldn't have lived if he hadn't been fed, and he wouldn't have stayed
if you hadn't given him recreation now and then. It's a poor heart
that don't rejoice sometimes. So much thanks he owes you. Do you pray
that it may always rain at night or on Sundays? Do you think the Lord
is the Lord of masters only? But he has been faithful as well as
diligent, and careful as well as laborious, he has saved you more than
his wages came to--are there no thanks for this? Pooh! you remind me
of my poor old mother.
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