People, she continued, did not care
to smoke, any more than they did to eat and drink, in
solitude. It was a social habit, and it was inevitable that
her boy should look for others to keep him company in smoking.
There would be no harm in that in the summer-time when young
people like to keep out of doors until bedtime; but during the
long winter evenings he would have to look for his companions
in the parlour of the public-house. And it would not be easy,
scarcely possible, to sit long among the others without
drinking a little beer. It is really no more wrong to drink
a little beer than to smoke, he would say; and it would be
true. One pipe would lead to another. and one glass of
beer to another. The habit would be formed and at last all
his evenings and all his earnings would be spent in the
public-house.
She was right, and I had nothing more to say except to wish
her success in her efforts.
It is curious that the strongest protests against the evils of
the village pubic, which one hears from village women, come
from those who are not themselves sufferers. Perhaps it is
not curious. Instinctively we hide our sores, bodily and
mental, from the public gaze.
Not long ago I was in a small rustic village in Wiltshire,
perhaps the most charming village I have seen in that country.
There was no inn or ale-house, and feeling very thirsty after
my long walk I went to a cottage and asked the woman I saw
there for a drink of milk.
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