ined.

In her seventh year, her health became visibly delicate, and she was
taken to Saratoga springs and to New York, from which excursions she
derived much physical advantage, and great intellectual pleasure; but
she returned to her native village with feelings of admiration and
enthusiasm for its natural beauties, heightened by contrast. As her
health began again to fail in the autumn, and the vicinity to the lake
seemed unfavorable to the health of Mrs. Davidson, the family went to
Canada to pass the winter with the eldest daughter.

Margaret grew stronger, but her mother derived no benefit from the
change, and for eighteen months remained a helpless invalid, during
which time her little daughter was her constant companion and
attendant. "Her tender solicitude," says Mrs. D., "endeared her to
me beyond any other earthly thing. Although under the roof of a
beloved and affectionate daughter, and having constantly with me
an experienced and judicious nurse, yet the soft and gentle voice
of my little darling was more than medicine to my worn-out frame.
If her delicate hand smoothed my pillow, it was soft to my aching
temples, and her sweet smile would cheer me in the lowest depths of
despondency. She would draw for me--read to me--and often, when
writing at her little table, would surprise me by some tribute of
love, which never failed to operate as a cordial to my heart. At a
time when my life was despaired of, she wrote the following verses
while sitting at my bed:--

'I'll to thy arms in rapture fly,
And wipe the tear that dims thine eye;
Thy pleasure will be my delight,
Till thy pure spirit takes its flight.

When left alone, when thou art gone,
Yet still I will not feel alone;
Thy spirit still will hover near,
And guard thy orphan daughter here.'"

Margaret continued to increase in strength until January, 1833, when
she was attacked by scarlet fever, under which she lingered many
weeks. In the month of May, she had, however, so far recovered as to
accompany her mother, now convalescent, on a visit to New York. Here
she was the delight of the relatives with whom she resided, and the
suggester of many new sources of amusement to her youthful companions.
One of her projects was to get up a dramatic entertainment, for
which she was to write the play. Indeed, she directed the whole
arrangements, although she had never but once been to a theatre, and
that on her former visit to New York. The prep