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The Cry of the Children from the Brickyards of England
The Cry of the Children from the Brickyards of England Author:George Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: "CHILDREN IN BRICK-FIELDS. "The Easter holidays are over and almost forgotten. Yet, while they lasted, how precious and delightful did they prove to thousands... more », to whom they formed a welcome break in the dull monotonous routine of industrial life. Like Whitsuntide and Christmas,|Easter is a time of high holiday, not only in England but in Christendom, and as such has been spent in different ways by different people. Some have gaily hied them away to the Lakes or taken a return-ticket to the Moors, others have rushed off on the wings of the wind, or rather per railway express, to some well-known spots, Arcadias in miniature, and in a ' fine frenzy' searched after impaired health over hill and dale ; strolled through copse and wood, trampling the early primrose; or they took their meditative way along the country side, glorious as it now is with its carpet of green, its air laden with perfume of violets, its hedgerows and coppices bespangled with silver, and its trees filled with choirs of early songsters attuning their welcome songs to the spirit of Spring. But in none of these ways have we spent our holidays, neither have the small people whom we have favoured with our company. In the very unpicturesque brick-yards of Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Leicestershire have we passed the Easter recess, surrounded by a pigmy army of boys and girls, who, with matted hair and naked feet, have worked and swarmed around us like human bees. Like bees have they industriously worked, say rather slaved, all the livelong day, gathering, not honey, but the wet and miry clay for their Egyptian taskmasters. From early morning to the close of day does this Lilliputian army of tiny Amazons and incipient Herculeses rush hither and thither with their burdens of clay, serving those whose maw is as insa...« less