{"product_id":"2940013654594","title":"THE THOROGOOD FAMILY","description":"CHAPTER ONE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis family was not only Thorogood but thorough-going.  The father was a\u003cbr\u003eblacksmith, with five sons and one daughter, and he used to hammer truth\u003cbr\u003einto his children's heads with as much vigour as he was wont to hammer\u003cbr\u003ethe tough iron on his anvil; but he did it kindly.  He was not a\u003cbr\u003egrowly-wowly, cross-grained man, like some fathers we know of--not he.\u003cbr\u003eHis broad, hairy face was like a sun, and his eyes darted sunbeams\u003cbr\u003ewherever they turned.  The faces of his five sons were just like his\u003cbr\u003eown, except in regard to roughness and hair.  Tom, and Dick, and Harry,\u003cbr\u003eand Bob, and Jim, were their names.  Jim was the baby.  Their ages were\u003cbr\u003eequally separated.  If you began with Jim, who was three, you had only\u003cbr\u003eto say--four, five, six, seven--Tom being seven.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese five boys were broad, and sturdy, like their father.  Like him,\u003cbr\u003ealso, they were fond of noise and hammering.  They hammered the\u003cbr\u003efurniture of their father's cottage, until all of it that was weak was\u003cbr\u003esmashed, and all that was strong became dreadfully dinted.  They also\u003cbr\u003ehammered each other's noses with their little fat fists, at times, but\u003cbr\u003ethey soon grew too old and wise for that; they soon, also, left off\u003cbr\u003ehammering the heads of their sister's dolls, which was a favourite\u003cbr\u003eamusement in their earlier days.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe mention of dolls brings us to the sister.  She was like her mother--\u003cbr\u003elittle, soft, fair, and sweet-voiced; just as unlike her brothers in\u003cbr\u003eappearance as possible--except that she had their bright blue, blazing\u003cbr\u003eeyes.  Her age was eight years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was, truly, a sight to behold this family sit down to supper of an\u003cbr\u003eevening.  The blacksmith would come in and seize little Jim in his\u003cbr\u003ebrawny arms, and toss him up to the very beams of the ceiling, after\u003cbr\u003ewhich he would take little Molly on his knee, and fondle her, while \"Old\u003cbr\u003eMoll,\" as he sometimes called his wife, spread the cloth and loaded the\u003cbr\u003etable with good things.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA cat, a kitten, and a terrier, lived together in that smith's cottage\u003cbr\u003eon friendly terms.  They romped with each other, and with the five boys,\u003cbr\u003eso that the noise used sometimes to be tremendous; but it was not an\u003cbr\u003eunpleasant noise, because there were no sounds of discontent or\u003cbr\u003equarrelling in it.  You see, the blacksmith and his wife trained that\u003cbr\u003efamily well.  It is wonderful what an amount of noise one can stand when\u003cbr\u003eit is good-humoured noise.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell, this blacksmith had a favourite maxim, which he was fond of\u003cbr\u003eimpressing on his children.  It was this--\"Whatever your hand finds to\u003cbr\u003edo, do it with all your might, doing it as if to the Lord, and not to\u003cbr\u003emen.\"  We need hardly say that he found something like this maxim in the\u003cbr\u003eBible--a grand channel through which wisdom flows to man.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOf course he had some trouble in teaching his little ones, just as other\u003cbr\u003efathers have.  One evening, when speaking about this favourite maxim, he\u003cbr\u003ewas interrupted by a most awful yell under the table.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47121215258864,"sku":"2940013654594","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013654594_p0.jpg?v=1763583536","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013654594","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}