them from her. It was all she could do to help the
young painter in his eager self-teaching; for she possessed no other
knowledge than that acquired at a village school during her childhood.
Her own fate had been a very sad one. She was a laborer's daughter,
betrothed from early girlhood to a sailor, who was her cousin; but
during one of his voyages--the last he was to make before their
marriage--her beauty attracted the admiration of the rich Mr. Monckton,
and he offered to make her his wife. The poor girl would fain have
refused him, and kept her promise to her absent lover, but her family
were flattered and dazzled by the idea of her wedding a man known to be
so wealthy, and she was not proof against their entreaties and their
anger. She married him; her relatives, however, derived no benefit from
the match their selfishness had made. The miser's doors were closed
against them; and lest his wife should be tempted to assist their
poverty at his expense, he forbade her ever seeing her parents. A weary
lot had been poor Mary's from that hour she married. Her only comfort
was derived from her children; and even they became a source of sorrow
as they grew past infancy, and she found that her husband's avarice
would deny them even the advantages she had enjoyed as a poor cottage
child. They received no education but such as she could give them; nay,
were made to toil at the lowest drudgery in return for the scanty food
and clothing their father bestowed. She taught them to read and write;
and afterward Richard, the elder, became his own instructor. There were
many old books to be found in the farm-house, and of those he made
himself master. The villagers, who had a few volumes, were willing to
lend them to such a clever lad; and at length, as we have said, his
genius for painting developed itself, and was ministered to by his
mother's industry. We remember seeing his first attempt at original
composition. It was boldly conceived and well executed, considering the
difficulties under which he labored: the subject was Phaeton driving the
chariot of the sun. It was shown to the clergyman of the village, a man
of great taste, and a connoisseur in painting. He was so much pleased
with it that he became the warm friend of the young artist, and, as far
as circumstances permitted, his instructor in literature and painting.
The younger brother inherited his father's taste for music, and was a
quiet, thoughtful child, passionately atta