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But these paupers seem, and they are, a forbidding class of men and women to work on. We must be very charitable indeed, or we shall fail of doing them any real good. They represent the great idea of want, or poverty. There they are in the clutches of poverty. Now consider the case and decide for thyself, reader, if duty does not lie towards them in the shape of help and encouragement, instead of neglect and contempt.

The inhabitants of Crampton knew, in general, less about the condition of their town-paupers than they did about the slaves of South Carolina, or the Sepoys in India. Those they read about; their town-paupers they left in the care of the "overseers" or selectmen.

Still, we should give credit where it belongs. There were persons who pitied them, and endeavored to do them service, and who sought to change the manner of their public support. We need hardly say that such an one was Mr. Haddock, who was one of those openhearted, generous souls, that if he saw any body suffering in his power to relieve him, would go about it at every cost to himself. He never stopped to ask if a man was rich or powerful, or poor and uninfluential; if he could relieve him, he at once attempted it. He lived not far from the poor-house, and often went over there to inquire how they got along.

So Mrs. Haddock was a lady of rare qualities of mind and heart. She was a sincere Christian, a pure-minded philanthropist, agreeing with her husband in all his benevolent plans, and to the utmost of her ability, helped them on. She was a lady of dignity and beauty, with great sweetness of character and energy of mind. Her views of duty were as clear as the light, and her decisions formed with surprising quickness, because her standard was the word of God, But the gentleness of woman shone through all her actions, things visionary, forward, bold, and absurd, forming no part of her excellent character, and commanding no attention or sacrifice of her womanly dignity and loveliness. They had three agreeable and very intelligent daughters, Frances, Ellen, and Sarah, and Mrs. Haddock took the highest interest in the formation of their characters. Her aim was to cultivate in them a correct idea and sincere love of benevolence. She desired them to possess an earnest compassion for the poor and suffering, and to have it for a great aim in life to do good -- not merely because there might be those who needed their kind offices, but for good's own sake, from a principle of goodness. Then she knew that artificial character, and spasmodic exhibitions of goodness would form no part of their mature development. In the main, she was successful. The girls were remarkable for system, thoroughness, true taste, excellent discrimination in their "charities," and for a judgment that very early distinguished them from a great many giddy heads and would-be-fashionable young ladies around them. They were not very handsome girls, but they were decidedly agreeable; and they were positively propossessing to many who professed to be good judges of beauty, but who declared it impossible to say whether they were handsome, or for some other cause attractive and winning. They had so many agreeable ways with them, people were so much pleased with their conversation, that it was almost impossible not to feel that, inasmuch as many look for beauty in females to interest them, they must be after all, very handsome young ladies!

It was well for the poor of Crampton that this family befriended them; that under all circumstances they could rely on their sympathy. Mr. and Mrs. Haddock lamented the condition the paupers were in, and the want of active and sympathetic labor in their behalf. It did not seem to them necessary that they should be kept in a manner at once disgraceful to the town, and mortifying and painful to themselves. They could see no good reason why there should be an unwillingness to provide for at least their conditional elevation.

"Why should they not be comfortable also?" inquired Mr. Haddock, "why always kept in a state of abject misery, subject to every human trial that such a state supposes, and of which it is the fruitful parent? Why not be respectably clothed, comfortably fed, and warmly housed? Why not put to suitable employment, and when they are sick, in want of assistance, why should they not enjoy the attendance of physicians, and the care of a nurse?"

They frequently brought up the subject in their family, and made it a topic of conversation with their neighbors. And living near to Captain Bunce, Mr. Haddock not unfrequently called on him, and visited the poor. Sometimes he had a little work that he would offer them; occasionally some blind, lame, or feeble representative of the poor-house would stray away to his premises, leaning on a rough staff, and Mrs. Haddock seldom permitted such a visitor to go away without a good bit of the breakfast or dinner that had been prepared for her own household.

If Mrs. Haddock or her daughters discovered any of the paupers needing warmer clothing, they would do all in their power to supply their wants. Still, it was often difficult to render as much relief as the charitable feeling prompted, for they were "Captain Bunce's people," and he occasionally resented all "interference," as he termed it, with his plans. He was on the best of terms with Mr. Haddock, but now and then he would fly in a passion, and say that Haddock and his wife were "humoring the 'patients' to death, and making them uneasy and mightily particular." Moreover, the manner of supporting the Crampton paupers was bad for their morals. They had little or no good instruction, example or motive. They were neglected and despised. If any were intemperate and vicious, very little restraint was ever used to correct their ways, so that it was not always safe to bestow your charities upon them, and was always discouraging. There were among them those who would not hesitate to pawn a coat, or a dress, a piece of meat, or even the Bible, for a small bottle of rum, or for a little tobacco. There were some of this class improvident, rough, saucy, wicked. All were not so. Some were truly virtuous persons, who had been brought into circumstances of poverty by afflictions and misfortunes that they themselves could not avoid. And there were others who were simple, weak in body and mind, their wants few, their condition never a very elevated one, never lower than now.