little miss austin

Alice doesn't know whether the relationship between Jane and Tom has developed by leaps and bounds, but Jane is no longer angry with Tom, which is easy to see.

She doesn't have time to go out with Henry and the others, it's important to be busy making money.

The good Wesley gave her a £1 coin a week, not much, but definitely a lot for a child.During the first week Mrs. Gresham had two new dresses made for her by the house tailor, a lined petticoat, drawers, shoes, and no hat, which she was too young to need.

When she heard that she was going to London with Henry at the end of the month, and then to Oxford, Mrs. Gresham was not very happy, and asked her when she would be back, saying why she had only been here for a few weeks and was leaving.Alice said that she would stay till the end of March, and that she would go to Mr. Hastings's for a few days, and then come back with Cousin Eliza.Mrs. Gresham did not speak ill of Hastings. After all, although his case was a sensation in London, it had dragged on for too long. If it were not for those in the legal profession, they would not pay too much attention to it.

At the end of the month, Alice packed a small suitcase, put on a new dress, and followed Henry Austin and Tom Lefroy to London.

To follow the general procedure, you need to take the carriage at home to a distant main road, wait for the stagecoach to come, then arrive at the stagecoach, and then transfer to the carriage to London.But this time it was Gresham Park which sent a four-horse coach with a coachman and two footmen, and Mr. Weasley was to drop by with them on their way to London.

Alice was quite surprised that Wesley dared to leave his comfort zone and go to the colorful world of London.

Early in the morning, Wesley took a carriage to Steventon and picked up Alice. Henry and Tom just got Alice's favor.

Of course the naughty Henry wanted to sit with his little sister, so Wesley could only sit opposite Tom.

The servants put the suitcases of the three of them on the roof of the carriage, and the coachman drove away.

Alice waved goodbye to her parents and sister from the car window.

This is the first time she has traveled far away from home.

After being excited for a while, he began to look at the two young men opposite with great interest: Wesley was much taller, about 6 feet tall, thin, not outstanding, and ordinary; Jane is slightly taller, delicate and lovely, with a pair of beautiful talking gray-blue eyes.

Judging from the first impression alone, Tom is indeed quite attractive.

Wesley suffered from his honest country boy demeanor.

Lucy vaguely mentioned that there were many brothers and sisters in Tom's family. He had 4 older sisters, 5 younger siblings, and two sisters who died young.

That is to say, the Lefroy family in Ireland, with 12 children...

Alice was terribly surprised at the time: she always felt that it was scary to have nine siblings, but she didn't expect that there were more children in Tom's family!

Of course, a royal family like Queen Teresa can have more children, anyway, they can afford it; poor families don’t have much entertainment, so can’t they just have sex at night?If rubber condoms were invented in this era, that would be a blessing for women!

But this kind of thing can only be thought about in the mind.

The Industrial Revolution in the UK is inseparable from the population explosion. The population of the UK almost doubled from the mid-18th century to the end of the 18th century. This is also inseparable from the large-scale planting of potatoes.High-yield and high-satiation food can feed a larger population. The surge in population has stimulated the rise of industry, more inventions and innovations in technology, and labor-intensive factories have appeared, and the number of workers has also followed The increase in population is inseparable. There is only so much arable land in total. The extra farmers without arable land can only go to the city to find jobs, which drives more consumption, increases demand, and increases the disposable money of the people. You can also buy more factory products, and so on and so on.

All this is inseparably linked, and the basis is the increase of population.Technological progress and economic development are due to the exponential growth brought about by the population surge, and all of this is based on the increase in the fertility rate of women.

So from a macro point of view, if you want to develop any contraceptive drugs or tools, it will stop the wheel of history. It is actually very difficult to do, and the existing technology cannot achieve it.But from a personal microcosm, she doesn't mind the emergence of related products for her future use.

Reverend George would have been terrified if he knew what she was thinking.

Tom's birthday was January 1th, and he spent his twentieth at Mrs. Lefroy's.In the countryside, there is no custom of celebrating birthdays. Lefroy's family celebrated his birthday with two extra dishes, and that's it. There seems to be no difference between 8 and 20, he is still the same likable guy.

However, no matter how likable a guy is, if he meets someone who doesn't want to talk to him at all, he can't continue the conversation. This is the legendary situation of "talking to death".

None of the Austin brothers and sisters wanted to resolve the embarrassment between the two of them, and they all happily pretended not to know.

Tom was very gloomy, thinking that the journey to London would be suffocating.This guy Henry is not a good friend, but a bad friend!

So he had to shut up and listen to the Austin brothers and sisters rambling.

Henry asked her where she wanted to go when she arrived in London. He could only stay in London for two weeks, and he had to report to the Oxfordshire militia for vacation.Alice asked, is there any place in London suitable for children to play?

"The circus, of course!" Tom replied eagerly, "There are clowns, grotesques on stilts, blindfolded throwing knives, lions jumping through fire rings, and horsemanship!"

Henry also nodded, "The circus is very fun, you will like it."

Alice thought about it. Although she has seen many wonderful circus performances on TV in later generations, they were only on a small screen after all. She had never watched any form of circus performance live.

"Is there a circus every day?"

"No, but there will be at least one show every week."

"Henry, then you must take me to see it, at least once a week."

Henry agreed, "Of course! My dearest little sister's request must be met." He pinched her little nose with a smile.

Alice also reached out to pinch his nose, and the brother and sister were laughing and joking.

At noon, I stopped for dinner at a station near Basingstoke. The station has developed into a village. The small restaurant next to the station provides boiled eggs, potato soup, roast chicken, apple pie and other food.

Tom got out of the carriage first, then Wesley, Henry, and finally Alice.

Henry didn't let Alice land on his feet, and carried her into the restaurant.Because the road around the post station is very dirty, this post station is a large relay station, where the carriages traveling from south to north rest and change horses, and there is a lot of horse manure on the road.

Fortunately, because it was winter, the weather was cold, and the smell could not be dissipated. In addition, the horses ate grass, so the horse manure was not very smelly, but it was very dirty.Everyone is looking for a place to stay among the horse manure.

Several people are well dressed, woolen coat and woolen hat, Alice is the worst dressed, because she can only wear the coats of her sisters when they were young.Fortunately, except that the style is a bit old, the material quality is not bad, and it is also wool.

Tom noticed this, and said, "Let Henry take you shopping for a new coat when you get to London." He didn't say why he took her there, though of course it was because of his brother Henry.

Only then did Wesley notice that she was wearing an old overcoat, but he looked at Henry and said nothing.

Henry readily agreed, "Dad also said to let me take her to buy a new coat."

The restaurant didn't have any menu. A waiter came over and asked them what they wanted to eat, but he was very talkative and reported what they could provide. The three men have a lot of food, so they ordered a roast chicken, a few boiled eggs, and some other food. After looking at the potato soup, they thought it would not be very tasty. The three men didn't eat it. Only Alice drank a little soup, did not eat potatoes, and ate two boiled eggs, and then Henry cut off the drumsticks of the roast chicken for her, and after eating two drumsticks, she was very full.

He also ordered meals for the coachman and servants, and asked the shop assistant to take them out for them to eat.The coachman was feeding the horses with water and fodder, and the manservants didn't come in to watch the carriage and luggage.

After eating, Henry and Tom took out the bag containing the tobacco, some tissue paper, each rolled a hand-rolled cigarette, and started puffing.

The good boy Wesley doesn't know how to smoke, so he watched in amazement as Alice smoked a piece of tissue paper, imitating the movements of the two of them.

"Would you like to smoke?" Wesley asked.

"Smoking is bad for your health." Alice said with a smile.

Henry pointed her out from the side, saying that her hands are too small, the curl is not tight, and it will fall apart after a few puffs, which is not good.After she finished tossing, she took it and rolled one again with a piece of tissue paper.

"Look, that's about it. You don't have to learn how to roll a cigarette, though. Would you like to try?"

Alice hesitated, then nodded.

Henry handed her the half-smoked cigarette, and she frowned seriously, taking a puff carefully.

The smell of smoke is very strong and chokes the nose.

She guessed it was because the smoke hadn't been filtered.

Both Henry and Tom watched happily as she choked and coughed.

Wesley quickly handed her a glass of water, and she took the glass and took a few sips.

"Let's talk about it when you grow up." Henry winked at her and took the cigarette away. "Now, this is just for grown-ups."

When they had finished smoking, they each put a few dried mint leaves in their mouths to get rid of the tobacco smell, and Alice ate a few too.When going out, Henry still hugged her and sent her into the carriage, and then the three of them got into the carriage one by one.

After a full meal, it is easy to get sleepy, but it is impossible to fall asleep comfortably in the carriage. Alice had to hug Henry's arm, put her face on his shoulder, and dozed off in a daze, being bumped by the bumpy carriage from time to time. wake up.

The author has something to say:

*At this time, there were no machine-made cigarettes, either hand-rolled cigarettes or pipes.No one knows that smoking is harmful to health, and smoking is very fashionable.

*The three major cash crops in American plantations are tobacco, cotton, and sugar cane.