Literary cadet, and Saturday evening bulletin. [volume] (Providence, R.I.) 1826-1827, 1827-04-07
MISCELL
THE LAST OF THE FAMILY.

tlC tI1t I uud w
extremity ofa little enclosed copse, when
| observed girl, with small basket,
lined with vine leaves, collecting the
wild strawberries that grew, in great
plenty and luxuriance, upon the bank
which formed the outer base of the ell
closure. She was the daughter of
ycoman in the neighborhood, who, dy-
ing in impoverished circumstances, had
left his widow with so slender provs-
ion for herself and hes child, that she
was obliged to increase her scanty in
come, by letting part of her cottage to
some Of the many who resorted to that
part Of the country, for the benefit of its
peculiarly salubrious air. Her dwelling
had the advantage of being at some dis
tance from the village, and in one of the
most delightfully."- retired situations which
can be imagined.
had frequently seen Mary Wilding
at our village church, where the punctu-
ality of her attendance, and the singular
devotion and propriety with which she
conducted herself within its sacred walls,
first engaged my attention. She had
some advantages in point of education,
not usually possessed by young persons
in her rank Of life /; and Nature, who
makes not all her beauties for Almack's
or the Opera, had dispensed her favours
to her with no sparing hand. | know
not to what order Of forms she belonged,
for it would seem that there are orders
in clay as well as in stone, but she was
surprisingly beautiful and, at the pc
riod of which am now writing, she had
scarcely attained her eighteenth year,
when the freshness and airiness of youth
were delightfully."- blended with the ripper
graces and more perfect symmetry of
the woman. 1t is true, the roses were
not lavishingly strewn upon her cheeks;
but their blush, slight as it was, was
thrown into relief, by the unsullied fair
ness of one of the most polished and
beautiful foreheads in the world. The
eyes of a beauty, it hath been settled,
should be one of two colours-her's were
neither: nay, start not, gentle reader
they were gray; but many fair pro-
prietresS of black and blue eyes might
envy the expression in which those Of
the unpretending Mary were arrayed.
Had her eyebrows been submitted ~
the hypercritic in beauty, he might,
probably, with his pencil, have given
them more mathematical curve but
ne could not have impaired to them a
deeper shade; and would have utterly
marred the deicacy with which those
beautiful lines were traced by the hand
of Nature. The ravens wing was ma
ny shades darker than her hair, but
it was not more glossy; and though
her curls were not arranged with the
taste, nor decorated with the expense,
which distinguish the ballroom, Nature
had compensated for the neglect of art,
by making them perpetual, and impart-
ing to them the clustering luxuriance of
the grape, in the vintage time. Her an
Gle was not clothed with silk, nor was
her foot compressed in satin; such
adornments could not have added to
the symmetry which the cotton hose, and
somewhat homely shoe, were not able to
conceal, and her fingers, as they pluck
ed the strawberries from their green
bank, were Of the fairness and delicacy
of the lily. There was no bracelet on
her arm; ! use the singular; for those
decorations are now worn on one wrist
only, like handcuff. 1t had, indeed,
been pity to have intercepted that beau
tiful outline, which marked the finely
moulded arm Of the rustic maiden.
There was nothing uncommon in the
circumstance of village girl gathering
the wild strawberry; and, but for its
frequent recurrence, it would not have
excited my particular attention. OBJ
serving her, however, at the same spot,
and at the same employment, for many
successive days, ventured, upon one
occasion, to inquire her motive for an
occupation whence she could derive lit
tie profit, and which must necessarily in
terfere with her domestic duties. She
replied, with some hesitation, that she
gathered them for a sick person, who
could scarcely relish any thing else f;
adding, that she feared she should COL
lect but few more, as she had nearly ex-
hausted the crop which grew upon the