t deny
her thy protection. Oh! Lord defend her innocence! Let her obtain a
place in thy kingdom after death; and for all the rest I submit to thy
providence; nor presumptuously pretend to dictate to supreme wisdom.
Thou art a gracious father and the afflictions thou sendest are.... Here
her voice failed her; but by her gestures we could perceive the
continued praying, and, having before taken the child in her arms the
little angel continued there for fear of disturbing her. By looks
sometimes turned towards the poor infant, and sometimes with her hand on
her own heart, and then her eyes lifted up as it were to heaven, we saw
she mixed prayers for the little mourner, with intercessions for
herself, till sense and motion seemed to fail her; she then fell into a
convulsion, and expired.

'The little girl perceived she was dead; and became almost as senseless
as the lump of clay which had so lately been her only friend. We had but
just taken her from the body, sir, when you came; and this was the
occasion of the emotions you observed in me.'

'The cause was indeed sufficient,' replied Mr Hintman, 'but I am glad
your sorrow proceeded from nothing more immediately concerning yourself.
Misery will strike its arrows into a humane heart; but the wounds it
makes are not so lasting, as those which are impressed by passions that
are more relative to ourselves.' 'Oh! sir,' said the old man, 'you
cannot form an adequate idea of the effect this scene must have on every
spectator, except you had seen the child! surely nature never formed so
lovely a little creature!' He continued his praises of Louisa, till at
length he excited Mr Hintman's curiosity; who expressing a desire of
seeing this miracle, he was carried up into the good man's room, to
which they had removed her. She, who had cried most bitterly before the
fatal stroke arrived, was now so oppressed, as not to be able to shed a
tear. They had put her on the bed, where she lay sighing with a heart
ready to break; her eyes fixed on one point, she neither saw nor heard.

Though her countenance expressed unutterable woe, yet she looked so
extremely beautiful, that Mr Hintman, highly as his expectation had
been raised, was struck with surprise. He allowed he never saw any thing
so lovely; and the charms of which her melancholy might deprive her,
were more than compensated in his imagination by so strong a proof of
extreme sensibility, at an age when few children perceive half the