"Jack had far better become a man learned in sheep than in birds, seeing
he is to be a shepherd. I can't see the use of all the learning Jack
gets hold of; it can't do him any good," said the shepherd.
"Oh! you dear, good old shepherd, I believe you think the world was made
for sheep, and shepherds the only useful people in it," exclaimed Fairy.
"I think if Jack learns his business and his Bible and Prayer-book, he
will do very well without any other learning. It is quite right and
proper that my little Fairy should learn to play the spinnet and to
speak French, which nobody here understands, and many other things of
which I don't even know the names, but I don't think that kind of
knowledge will make Jack a good shepherd or a good Christian, and that
is all he is required to be," said John Shelley, stroking Fairy's
golden head fondly as he spoke.
"But if he could be a very clever man some day and perhaps learn a
profession, you would think that better than being a good shepherd,
would you not?" said Fairy, who was in Jack's confidence, and knew that
as he watched the sheep on the downs he dreamt dreams of this kind.
"No, Fairy, no; if God had meant Jack to be a gentleman he would not
have given him a shepherd for his father. His duty is to labour hard to
get his own living in that state of life in which it has pleased God to
call him, as the Catechism says.
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