Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-06-24
She kne,U I uUas her daughter dear


For want of the masters presence, for
lack of pushing and encouragement, the
yearly returns Of the shop grew less and
less. No one knew this except my mother.
1t was useless to tell my father. If she
begged his attention to the fact, he only
said that the business was, in the nature
of things, fucIuating; that bad year
would be succeeded by q good yesr; that
large profits had recently been made by
traders TO Calicut and Surinam, where he
had designs Of employing his own capital,
and that ventures to Canton had OF late
proved extremely successful. Alas, poor
man! he had no capital left for now all
was gone-capital, credit and custom.
Yet he still continued to believe that his
shop, the shop which came to him with
his wife, was bringing to him. every year,
great and steady return, and that he was
amassipg a fortune.
One day-it was Saturday evening in
May-in the year 1779, six years after the
flight of Ralph Embleto1, when | was in
my seventeenth year, and almost grown to
my full height, / saw coming slowly along
the narrow road which leads from the
highway to Warkworth country cart,
and in it two persons, the driver walking
at the horses head. IstoCd at the garden
gate watching this cart idly, and the SET
ting sun behind it, without 80 much as
wondering who these persons might be,
until presently it came slowly down the
road, which here slopes gently to the river
and the bridge, and pulled up in front Of
our gate. When the cart stopped lady
got quickly down and seized my hands.
''You are my Drnsills?" she asked, and
without waiting for reply, because she
was my mother and knew l could be no
other than her own daughter, sbe fell upon
my neck in . passion of weeping and sob
bipg, saying that she knew ! was her
daughter dear, and that she WAS my most
unhappy ruined mother. Itwas my father
who descended after her. He advanced
with digniiied step and carriage Of one in
authority. IoNserved that his linen and
the lace of his 70 files were of the very finest,
and his coat, though dusty, of the finest
brosdcloth. He seemed not to perceive
my mothers tears; ne kissed roe and gave
me his blessing He bade the carter, with
majestic air, lead the "coach''-hs called
the country cart a ooach-and take great
care of the horse, which he said was worth
forty guineas if penny; but the horse
was a 10.year. old cart horse, worth at most
four guineas, as / knew very well, because
knew the carrier.
Amazed at this extraordinary behavior,
I led my parents to my grandmother, and
then we presently learned the truth. My
Gather, if you please, was ruined; he was
q bankrupt; his schemes of greatness had
come to nothing; his vast fortune lay IN
his imagination only; he had lost his wife's
money and his own. He had returned to
his native county, his old friends having
dubbed together and made little purse
for him, and his creditors having consented
to accept what they could get and to give
him quittance in full, because he was
known to be a man of integrity; otherwise
he might have been lodged in Jail, where
many an unfortunate, yet honest man lietb
in misery.
The disaster was more than my fathers
brain could bear. First, as soon as he
fairly understood what had happened, he
fell into lethargy, sitting in chair all
day in silence, and desiring nothing but to
be left alone. After while the lethargy
changed into restlessness, aud he must
needs be up and doing something-it mat
tered not what. Then the restlessness
disappeared and he became again his old
self, as cheerful, as sanguine, as confident,
with no other change than more settled
dignity of bsariug, caused by the belief,
the complete delusion, that now his for
tune was indeed made; that he possessed