of it was, that no one was ever heard to dispute them. Dear old man, he is dead now, but some of his rights survive him. 60 Bryce was working for a baker in the village near which my grandfather lived. His master died suddenly, leaving a widow and nine children. Bryce was an enterprising young man, and had been thinking of setting up for himself. My grandfather, however, 65 heard that after his master's death he gave up this wish, and continued to work at his former wages, trying to keep the business together for the widow. Happening to meet him, he asked him if this report were true. 'Why, yes, sir," said Bryce; "you see nobody else would manage everything for her without a share of the profits; and nine children-what a tug they are! so as I have nobody belonging to me-nobody that has any claim on me-" "But I thought you wanted to set up for yourself?" "And so I did, sir; and if I'd a wife and family, I'd make a push to get on for their sakes, but I've none; and so, as I can live on what I get, and hurt nobody by it, 'I have a right' to help her, poor soul, as I've a mind to. 70 75 80 Soon after this the widow took to dressmaking, and did so well that she wanted no help from Bryce, who now set up for himself, and borrowed a sum of money from my grandfather to begin with. At 85 first he was so poor, and the weekly profits were so small, that he requested my grandfather to receive the trifle of interest monthly, and for the first two months he said it "completely cleared him out" to The four old people leaving the baker's shop 90 pay it. My grandfather was, therefore, rather surprised one Saturday evening, as he sauntered down the village street, to see four decrepit old people hobbling down the steps of his shop, each carrying a good-sized loaf, and loudly praising the generosity 95 of Mr. Bryce. The sun was just setting, and cast a ruddy glow on the young baker's face as he stood leaning against the post of his door, but he started with some confusion when he saw my grandfather, and hastily asked him to enter his shop. "I reckon 100 you are surprised, sir," he said, "to see me giving 1 away bread before I've paid my debt; but just look round, sir. Those four loaves were all I had left, except what I can eat myself, and they were stale; so think what they'd have been by Monday morning!” "I don't wish to interfere with your charities," 105 said my grandfather. "But, sir," said Bryce, "I want you to see that I'm as eager to pay off that money as I can be; but people won't buy stale bread-they won't, indeed; and so I thought I had a right to give away those four 110 loaves, being they were left upon my hands." "I think so too," said my grandfather, who was then quite a young man, "and I shall think so next Saturday and the Saturday after.' "Thank you, sir, I'm sure," said the baker. In course of time the debt was paid, though almost every Saturday those old people hobbled from the door. And now Mr. Bryce's rights were found to increase with his business and enlarge with his family. 115 First he had only a right to give away the stale 120 loaves, "being he was in debt." Then he had a right to give away all that was left, "being he was out of debt." While he was single, he had a right to bake dinners for nothing, "being he had no family to save for." When he was married, he had a right to consider 125 the poor, "being, as he was, so prosperous as to have enough for his own, and something over." When he had ten children, business still increasing, he found out that he had a right to adopt his wife's little niece, "for, bless you, sir," he observed, "I've such a lot of 130 my own, that a pudding that serves for ten shares serves for eleven just as well. And, as for schooling, I wouldn't think of it, if my boys and girls were not as good scholars as I'd wish to see; for I spare nothing 135 for their learning-but being they are, and money still in the till, why, I've a right to let this little one share. In fact, when a man has earned a jolly hot dinner for his family every day, and seen 'em say their grace over it, he has a right to give what they leave 140 On't to the needy, especially if his wife's agreeable.' And so Mr. Bryce, the baker, went on prospering and finding out new rights to keep pace with his prosperity. In due time his many sons and daughters grew up; the latter married, and the former were placed 145 out in life. Finally, after a long and happy life, Mr. Bryce, the baker, died, and in his will, after leaving £500 apiece to all his sons and daughters, he concluded his bequests with this characteristic sentence: "And, my dear children, by the blessing of God, 150 having put you out well in life, and left you all hand some, I feel (especially as I have the hearty consent of you all) that I have a right to leave the rest of my property, namely £700, for the use of those that want it. First, the village of D-- being very much 155 in want of good water, I leave £400, the estimated cost, for digging a well, and making a pump over it, the same to be free to all; and the interest of the remainder I leave to be spent in blankets every winter, and given away to the most destitute widows and 160 orphans in the parish." So the well was dug, and the pump was made; and as long as the village lasts, opposite his own shop door, the sparkling water will gush out; the village mothers will gossip as they fill their buckets there; the village fathers will cool their sunburnt foreheads 165 there, and the village children will put their ears to it and listen to its purling down below; a witness to the rights, and a proof of how his rights were used by Bryce the baker. From "Stories Told to a Child." GLOSSARY. Inalienable; immunity; indulgence; king's highway; worshipful; tug; decrepit; till; handsome; purling. STUDY. What are the main points about "rights" brought out in the introduction to this selection? Do these rights concern what we can do for others, or what we can legally demand from them? Did Mr. Bryce have a different notion of his rights from that possessed by most people? Point out the incidents in his career that illustrate your answer. Why does the writer call the last sentence of his will "characteristic"? Would it make much difference if there were many more people like Mr. Bryce? THE CHAMELEON JAMES MERRICK Oft has it been my lot to mark |