Page:Original stories from real life 1796.pdf/60

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young brood. The domeſtic animals play with the children, finding her a mild attentive miſtreſs; and out of her ſcanty fortune ſhe contrives to feed and clothe many a hungry, ſhivering wretch; who bleſs her as ſhe paſſes along.

Though ſhe has not any outward decorations, ſhe appears ſuperior to her neighbours, who call her the Gentlewoman; indeed every geſture ſhews an accompliſhed and dignified mind, that relies on itſelf; when deprived of the fortune which contributed to poliſh and give it conſequence.

Drawings, the amuſement of her youth, ornament her neat parlour; ſome muſical inſtruments ſtand in one corner; for ſhe plays with taſte, and ſings ſweetly.

All the furniture, not forgetting a book-caſe, full of well-choſen books, ſpeak the refinement of the owner, and the pleaſures a cultivated mind has within its own graſp, independent of proſperity.

Her huſband, a man of taſte and learning, reads to her, while ſhe makes clothes for her children, whom ſhe teaches in the

tendereſt