Would that the present historian could
do as much for Cowfold! Would that he could bring back one blue
summer morning, one afternoon and evening, and reproduce exactly what
happened in Cowfold Square, in one of the Cowfold shops, in one of
the Cowfold parlours, and in one Cowfold brain and heart. Could this
be done with strictest accuracy, a book would be written, although
Cowfold was not Athens, Rome, nor Jerusalem, which would live for
many many years longer than much of the literature of this century.
But alas! the preliminary image in the mind of the writer is faint
enough, and when he comes to trace it, the pencil swerves and goes
off into something utterly unlike it. An attempt, however, to show
what the waking hours in Cowfold Square were like may not be out of
place. The shopkeeper came into his shop at half-past seven, about
half an hour after the shutters had been taken down by his
apprentice. At eight o'clock breakfast was ready; but before
breakfast there was family worship, and a chapter was read from the
Bible, followed by an extempore prayer from the head of the
household. If the master happened to be absent, it was not
considered proper that the mistress should pray extempore, and she
used a book of "Family Devotions.
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