THE LANDLORD'S VISIT.

A DRAMA.

SCENE-A room in a farm-house. BETTY, the farmer's wife; FANNY, a young woman grown up; children of various ages differently employed.

ENTER LANDLORD..

Landl. Good morning to you, Betty.

Betty. Ah!—is it your honour? How do you do, sir?-how is madam and all the good family? Landl. Very well, thank you; and how are you and all yours?

Betty. Thank your honour-all pretty well. Will you please to sit down? Ours is but a little crowded place, but there's a clean corner. Set out the chair for his honour, Mary.

Landl. I think every thing is very clean. What, John's in the field, I suppose.

Betty. Yes, sir, with his two eldest sons, sowing and harrowing.

Landl. Well-and here are two, three, four, six; all the rest of your stock, I suppose—All as busy as bees !

Betty. Ay, your honour! These are not times to be idle in. John and I have always worked hard, and we bring up our children to work too. There's none of them, except the youngest, but can do something.

Landl. You do very rightly. With industry and sobriety there is no fear of their getting a living, come what may. I wish many gentlemen's children had as good a chance.

Betty. Lord! sir, if they have fortunes ready got for them, what need they care?

Landl. But fortunes are easier to spend than to get; and when they are at the bottom of the purse, what must they do to fill it again?

Betty. Nay, that's true, sir; and we have reason enough to be thankful that we are able and willing to work, and have a good landlord to live under. Landl. Good tenants deserve good landlords; and I have been long acquainted with your value. Come, little folks; I have brought something for [Takes out cakes. Betty. Why don't you thank his honour? Landl. I did not think you had a daughter so old as that young woman.

you.

Betty. No more I have, sir. She is not my own daughter, though she is as good as one to me. Landl. Some relation, then, I suppose. Betty. No, sir, none at all.

Landl. Who is she, then?

Betty. (whispering). When she is gone out I will tell your honour.-(Loud) Go, Fanny, and take some milk to the young calf in the stable. [Exit Fanny. Landl. A pretty modest looking young woman, on my word!

Betty. Ay, Sir-and as good as she is pretty. You must know, sir, that this young woman is a stranger, from a great way off. She came here quite by accident, and has lived with us above a twelvemonth. I'll tell your honour all about it if you choose.

Landl. Pray do-I am curious to hear it. But first favour me with a draught of your whey. Betty. I beg your pardon, sir, for not offering

it. Run, Mary, and fetch his honour some fresh whey in a clean basin.

[Mary goes. Landl. Now pray begin your story.

Betty. Well, sir-As our John was coming from work one evening, he saw at some distance on the road a carrier's waggon overturned. He ran up to help, and found a poor old gentlewoman lying on the bank much hurt, and this girl sitting beside her, crying. My good man, after he had helped in setting the waggon to rights, went to them, and with a good deal of difficulty got the gentlewoman into the waggon again, and walked by the side of it to our house. He called me out, and we got something comfortable for her; but she was so ill that she could not bear to be carried further. So, after consulting awhile, we took her into the house, and put her to bed. Her head was sadly hurt, and she seemed to grow worse instead of better. We got a doctor to her, and did our best to nurse her, but all would not do, and we

soon found she was likely to die. Poor Fanny, her granddaughter, never left her day or night; and it would have gone to your honour's heart to have heard the pitiful moan she made over her. She was the only friend she had in the world, she said; and what would become of her if she were to lose her? Fanny's father and mother were both dead, and she was going with her grandmother into the north, where the old gentlewoman came from, to live cheap, and try to find out some relations. Well-to make my story short, in a few days the poor woman died. There was little more money about her than would serve to pay the doctor and bury her. Fanny was in sad trouble indeed. I thought she would never have left her grandmother's grave. She cried and wrung her hands most bitterly. But I tire your honour.

Landl. O no! I am much interested in your story.

Betty. We comforted her as well as we could; but all her cry was, What will become of me? Where must I go? Who will take care of me? So after awhile, said I to John, poor creature!

my heart grieves for her. Perhaps she would like to stay with us-though she seems to have been brought up in a way of living different from ours, too ;-but what can she do, left to herself in the wide world! So my husband agreed that I should ask her. When I mentioned it to her, poor thing! how her countenance altered. 0, said she, I wish for nothing so much as to stay and live with you! I am afraid I can do but little to serve you, but indeed I will learn and do my best. Said I, Do no more than you like ; you are welcome to stay and partake with us as long as

you please. Well, sir, she staid with us: and set about learning to do all kind of our work with such good will, and so handily, that she soon became my best helper. And she is so sweet-tempered, and so fond of us and the children, that I love her as well as if she was my own child. She has been well brought up, I am sure. She can read and write, and work with her needle, a great deal better than we can, and when work is over she teaches the children. Then she is extraordinary well-behaved, so as to be admired by all that see her. So your honour has now the story of our Fanny.

Landl. I thank you heartily for it, my good Betty! It does much credit both to you and Fanny. But pray what is her sirname?

Betty. It is-let me see-I think it is Welford.

Landl. Welford! that is a name I am acquainted with. I should be glad to talk with her a little.

Betty. I will call her in then.

ENTER FANNY.

Landl. Come hither, young woman.

1 have

heard your story, and been much interested by it. You are an orphan, I find.

Fanny. Yes, sir; a poor orphan.

Landl. Your name is Welford?

Fan. It is, sir.

Landl. Where did your parents live?

Fan. In London, sir; but they died when I was very young, and I went to my grandmother's in Surry.

Landl. Was she your father's mother? You