The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb

rbour at the door of her cottage. She was blind; and her grandaughter was reading th

ment. The moral she drew from it was not very new, to be sure. The girl had heard it a hundred times before-and

doing. Rosamund was to her at once a child and a servant. S

parents, their failure, their folly, and distresses, ma

's father-just after the mother had died of a broken heart; for her husband had fled his country to hide his shame in

hout fortune or friends: she went with her grandmother. I

n dimmed by weeping: be that as it may, she was latterly grown quite blind. "God is very good to us, child; I can f

d reach. It was a religious principle, and she had taught it to Rosamund; for the girl had mostly resided with her grandmother fro

ng experience in life had contributed to make her, at times, a

ly Bible, with notes and expositions by various

dsome case of green velvet, with gold tassels-the only relick of departed grandeur they had brought

with none of her authority; indeed it was never exerted with much harshness; and happy was Rosamund, though a girl grown, when she could obtain l

and lavender stuck here and there between the leaves, (I suppose, to point to some of the old lady's most favorite receipts,) and there was "Wither's Emblems," an old book, and

osamund as old friends, that she had long known. I know not whether the peculiar cast of her mind might not be trace

ld she was remarkably shy and thoughtful-this was taken for stupidity and want of feeling; and the child ha

ve her sprightly lectures about good humour and rational mirth; and not unfrequently fall a cryi

it would be strange if you did not-but I fear, Rosamund; I fear, girl, you sometimes think too deeply about your own situation and poor prospects in life. When yo

ese occasions-or else the girl knew well enough herself, that she had only been sad to think of the desolate condition of her best friend

ithout a bow, or a pulling off of the hat-some shew of courtesy, aukward indeed, b

ity to express contempt for any thing that looks like

d,) all promised to provide for Rosamund, when her grandmo

; a relation, a benefactor, a something. God knows our wants-that it is not good for man or woman to be alone; and he always sen