There Was Such An Air Of Patient
And Enduring Suffering To The Whole Group, That, As I Gazed
Heart-Stricken Upon It, My Fortitude Quite Gave Way, And I Burst
Into Tears.
Mrs. N - - first broke the painful silence, and, rather proudly,
asked me to whom she had the pleasure of speaking.
I made a
desperate effort to regain my composure, and told her, but with much
embarrassment, my name; adding that I was so well acquainted with
her and her children, through Jenny, that I could not consider her
as a stranger; that I hoped that, as I was the wife of an officer,
and like her, a resident in the bush, and well acquainted with all
its trials and privations, she would look upon me as a friend.
She seemed surprised and annoyed, and I found no small difficulty
in introducing the object of my visit; but the day was rapidly
declining, and I knew that not a moment was to be lost. At first
she coldly rejected all offers of service, and said that she was
contented, and wanted for nothing.
I appealed to the situation in which I beheld herself and her
children, and implored her, for their sakes, not to refuse help from
friends who felt for her distress. Her maternal feelings triumphed
over her assumed indifference, and when she saw me weeping, for I
could no longer restrain my tears, her pride yielded, and for some
minutes not a word was spoken. I heard the large tears, as they
slowly fell from her daughter's eyes, drop one by one upon her
garments.
At last the poor girl sobbed out, "Dear mamma, why conceal the
truth? You know that we are nearly naked, and starving."
Then came the sad tale of domestic woes: - the absence of the husband
and eldest son; the uncertainty as to where they were, or in what
engaged; the utter want of means to procure the common necessaries
of life; the sale of the only remaining cow that used to provide the
children with food. It had been sold for twelve dollars, part to be
paid in cash, part in potatoes; the potatoes were nearly exhausted,
and they were allowanced to so many a day. But the six dollars she
had retained as their last resource. Alas! she had sent the eldest
boy the day before to P - -, to get a letter out of the post-office,
which she hoped contained some tidings of her husband and son.
She was all anxiety and expectation, but the child returned late
at night without the letter which they had longed for with such
feverish impatience. The six dollars upon which they had depended
for a supply of food were in notes of the Farmer's Bank, which at
that time would not pass for money, and which the roguish purchaser
of the cow had passed off upon this distressed family.
Oh! imagine, ye who revel in riches - who can daily throw away a
large sum upon the merest toy - the cruel disappointment, the bitter
agony of this poor mother's heart, when she received this calamitous
news, in the midst of her starving children.
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