and chaffing at him for driving hard to the train for an extra fare,
as they said, all against his principles, and they wanted to know

how much he had pocketed.
"A good deal more than I generally get," said he, nodding slyly;

"what he gave me will keep me in little comforts for several days."
"Gammon!" said one.

"He's a humbug," said another; "preaching to us and then
doing the same himself."

"Look here, mates," said Jerry; "the gentleman offered me half a crown extra,
but I didn't take it; 'twas quite pay enough for me to see how glad he was

to catch that train; and if Jack and I choose to have a quick run
now and then to please ourselves, that's our business and not yours."

"Well," said Larry, "you'll never be a rich man."
"Most likely not," said Jerry; "but I don't know that I shall be

the less happy for that. I have heard the commandments read
a great many times and I never noticed that any of them said,

`Thou shalt be rich'; and there are a good many curious things
said in the New Testament about rich men that I think would make me

feel rather queer if I was one of them."
"If you ever do get rich," said Governor Gray, looking over his shoulder

across the top of his cab, "you'll deserve it, Jerry, and you won't find
a curse come with your wealth. As for you, Larry, you'll die poor;

you spend too much in whipcord."
"Well," said Larry, "what is a fellow to do if his horse won't go

without it?"
"You never take the trouble to see if he will go without it;

your whip is always going as if you had the St. Vitus' dance in your arm,
and if it does not wear you out it wears your horse out;

you know you are always changing your horses; and why?
Because you never give them any peace or encouragement."

"Well, I have not had good luck," said Larry, "that's where it is."
"And you never will," said the governor. "Good Luck is rather particular

who she rides with, and mostly prefers those who have got common sense
and a good heart; at least that is my experience."

Governor Gray turned round again to his newspaper, and the other men
went to their cabs.

36 The Sunday Cab
One morning, as Jerry had just put me into the shafts and was fastening

the traces, a gentleman walked into the yard. "Your servant, sir,"
said Jerry.

"Good-morning, Mr. Barker," said the gentleman. "I should be glad
to make some arrangements with you for taking Mrs. Briggs regularly to church

on Sunday mornings. We go to the New Church now, and that is rather further
than she can walk."

"Thank you, sir," said Jerry, "but I have only taken out
a six-days' license,* and therefore I could not take a fare on a Sunday;

it would not be legal."
--

* A few years since the annualcharge for a cab license was
very much reduced, and the difference between the six and seven days' cabs

was abolished.
--

"Oh!" said the other, "I did not know yours was a six-days' cab;
but of course it would be very easy to alter your license.

I would see that you did not lose by it; the fact is,
Mrs. Briggs very much prefers you to drive her."

"I should be glad to oblige the lady, sir, but I had
a seven-days' license once, and the work was too hard for me,

and too hard for my horses. Year in and year out, not a day's rest,
and never a Sunday with my wife and children; and never able to go

to a place of worship, which I had always been used to do before I took
to the driving box. So for the last five years I have only taken

a six-days' license, and I find it better all the way round."
"Well, of course," replied Mr. Briggs, "it is very proper that every person

should have rest, and be able to go to church on Sundays,
but I should have thought you would not have minded such a short distance

for the horse, and only once a day; you would have all the afternoon
and evening for yourself, and we are very good customers, you know."

"Yes, sir, that is true, and I am grateful for all favors, I am sure;
and anything that I could do to oblige you, or the lady,

I should be proud and happy to do; but I can't give up my Sundays, sir,
indeed I can't. I read that God made man, and he made horses and all

the other beasts, and as soon as He had made them He made a day of rest,
and bade that all should rest one day in seven; and I think, sir,

He must have known what was good for them, and I am sure it is good for me;
I am stronger and healthier altogether, now that I have a day of rest;

the horses are fresh too, and do not wear up nearly so fast.
The six-day drivers all tell me the same, and I have laid by

more money in the savings bank than ever I did before;
and as for the wife and children, sir, why, heart alive!

they would not go back to the seven days for all they could see."
"Oh, very well," said the gentleman. "Don't trouble yourself, Mr. Barker,

any further. I will inquire somewhere else," and he walked away.
"Well," says Jerry to me, "we can't help it, Jack, old boy;

we must have our Sundays."
"Polly!" he shouted, "Polly! come here."

She was there in a minute.
"What is it all about, Jerry?"

"Why, my dear, Mr. Briggs wants me to take Mrs. Briggs to church
every Sunday morning. I say I have only a six-days' license. He says,

`Get a seven-days' license, and I'll make it worth your while;'
and you know, Polly, they are very good customers to us.

Mrs. Briggs often goes out shopping for hours, or making calls,
and then she pays down fair and honorable like a lady;

there's no beating down or making three hours into two hours and a half,
as some folks do; and it is easy work for the horses; not like tearing along

to catch trains for people that are always a quarter of an hour too late;
and if I don't oblige her in this matter it is very likely

we shall lose them altogether. What do you say, little woman?"
"I say, Jerry," says she, speaking very slowly, "I say, if Mrs. Briggs

would give you a sovereign every Sunday morning, I would not have you
a seven-days' cabman again. We have known what it was to have no Sundays,

and now we know what it is to call them our own. Thank God,
you earn enough to keep us, though it is sometimes close work

to pay for all the oats and hay, the license, and the rent besides;
but Harry will soon be earning something, and I would rather struggle on

harder than we do than go back to those horrid times when you hardly had
a minute to look at your own children, and we never could go

to a place of worship together, or have a happy, quiet day.
God forbid that we should ever turn back to those times;

that's what I say, Jerry."
"And that is just what I told Mr. Briggs, my dear," said Jerry,

"and what I mean to stick to. So don't go and fret yourself, Polly"
(for she had begun to cry); "I would not go back to the old times

if I earned twice as much, so that is settled, little woman.
Now, cheer up, and I'll be off to the stand."

Three weeks had passed away after this conversation, and no order had come
from Mrs. Briggs; so there was nothing but taking jobs from the stand.

Jerry took it to heart a good deal, for of course the work was harder
for horse and man. But Polly would always cheer him up, and say,

"Never mind, father, never, mind.
"`Do your best,

And leave the rest,
'Twill all come right

Some day or night.'"
It soon became known that Jerry had lost his best customer,

and for what reason. Most of the men said he was a fool,
but two or three took his part.

"If workingmen don't stick to their Sunday," said Truman, "they'll soon have
none left; it is every man's right and every beast's right. By God's law

we have a day of rest, and by the law of England we have a day of rest;
and I say we ought to hold to the rights these laws give us

and keep them for our children."
"All very well for you religious chaps to talk so," said Larry;

"but I'll turn a shilling when I can. I don't believe in religion,
for I don't see that your religious people are any better than the rest."

"If they are not better," put in Jerry, "it is because
they are not religious. You might as well say that our country's laws

are not good because some people break them. If a man gives way
to his temper, and speaks evil of his neighbor, and does not pay his debts,

he is not religious, I don't care how much he goes to church.
If some men are shams and humbugs, that does not make religion untrue.

Real religion is the best and truest thing in the world, and the only thing
that can make a man really happy or make the world we live in any better."

"If religion was good for anything," said Jones, "it would prevent
your religious people from making us work on Sundays, as you know

many of them do, and that's why I say religion is nothing but a sham; why,
if it was not for the church and chapel-goers it would be hardly worth while

our coming out on a Sunday. But they have their privileges,
as they call them, and I go without. I shall expect them to answer

for my soul, if I can't get a chance of saving it."
Several of the men applauded this, till Jerry said:

"That may sound well enough, but it won't do; every man must look after
his own soul; you can't lay it down at another man's door like a foundling

and expect him to take care of it; and don't you see,
if you are always sitting on your box waiting for a fare, they will say,

`If we don't take him some one else will, and he does not look
for any Sunday.' Of course, they don't go to the bottom of it,

or they would see if they never came for a cab it would be no use
your standing there; but people don't always like to go

to the bottom of things; it may not be convenient to do it;
but if you Sunday drivers would all strike for a day of rest

the thing would be done."
"And what would all the good people do if they could not get

to their favorite preachers?" said Larry.
"'Tis not for me to lay down plans for other people," said Jerry,

"but if they can't walk so far they can go to what is nearer;
and if it should rain they can put on their mackintoshes as they do

on a week-day. If a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong
it can be done without; and a good man will find a way.

And that is as true for us cabmen as it is for the church-goers."
37 The Golden Rule

Two or three weeks after this, as we came into the yard rather late
in the evening, Polly came running across the road with the lantern

(she always brought it to him if it was not very wet).
"It has all come right, Jerry; Mrs. Briggs sent her servant this afternoon

to ask you to take her out to-morrow at eleven o'clock. I said,
`Yes, I thought so, but we supposed she employed some one else now.'"

"`Well,' said he, `the real fact is, master was put out because
Mr. Barker refused to come on Sundays, and he has been trying other cabs,

but there's something wrong with them all; some drive too fast,
and some too slow, and the mistress says there is not one of them so nice

and clean as yours, and nothing will suit her but Mr. Barker's cab again.'"
Polly was almost out of breath, and Jerry broke out into a merry laugh.

"`'Twill all come right some day or night': you were right, my dear;
you generally are. Run in and get the supper, and I'll have

Jack's harness off and make him snug and happy in no time."
After this Mrs. Briggs wanted Jerry's cab quite as often as before,

never, however, on a Sunday; but there came a day when we had Sunday work,
and this was how it happened. We had all come home on the Saturday night

very tired, and very glad to think that the next day would be all rest,
but so it was not to be.

On Sunday morning Jerry was cleaning me in the yard,
when Polly stepped up to him, looking very full of something.

"What is it?" said Jerry.
"Well, my dear," she said, "poor Dinah Brown has just had a letter brought

to say that her mother is dangerously ill, and that she must go directly
if she wishes to see her alive. The place is more than ten miles away

from here, out in the country, and she says if she takes the train
she should still have four miles to walk; and so weak as she is,

and the baby only four weeks old, of course that would be impossible;

• governor [´gʌvənə] n.总督；州长 (初中英语单词)
• deserve [di´zə:v] v.应受；值得 (初中英语单词)
• wealth [welθ] n.财富，财产 (初中英语单词)
• mostly [´məustli] ad.主要地；多半；通常 (初中英语单词)
• therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
• annual [´ænjuəl] a.每年的 n.年刊 (初中英语单词)
• charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
• oblige [ə´blaidʒ] vt.责成；迫使；使感激 (初中英语单词)
• worship [´wə:ʃip] n.&v.崇拜；敬仰 (初中英语单词)
• grateful [´greitful] a.感谢的；令人愉快的 (初中英语单词)
• altogether [,ɔ:ltə´geðə] ad.完全；总而言之 (初中英语单词)
• sovereign [´sɔvrin] a.至高无上的 n.君主 (初中英语单词)
• forbid [fə´bid] vt.禁止，不许，阻止 (初中英语单词)
• temper [´tempə] n.韧度 v.锻炼；调和 (初中英语单词)
• waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
• standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
• convenient [kən´vi:niənt] a.方便的 (初中英语单词)
• running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
• supposed [sə´pəuzd] a.想象的；假定的 (初中英语单词)
• mistress [´mistris] n.女主人；情妇；女能手 (初中英语单词)
• breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
• harness [´hɑ:nis] vt.上马具 n.马具 (初中英语单词)
• regularly [´regjuləli] ad.有规律地；经常地 (高中英语单词)
• horrid [´hɔrid] a.令人讨厌的；极糟的 (高中英语单词)
• shilling [´ʃiliŋ] n.先令 (高中英语单词)
• testament [´testəment] n.契约，誓约；遗嘱 (英语四级单词)
• trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
• minded [´maindid] a.有...心的 (英语六级单词)
• beating [´bi:tiŋ] n.敲；搅打；失败 (英语六级单词)
• speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
• dangerously [´deindʒrəsli] ad.危险 (英语六级单词)