" and moreover offer us a portrait
from _real life_ of true feminine excellence, of a young creature of
rank and family, of cultivated and refined tastes and of high
connexions, utterly forgetting all these in the cheerful and
conscientious discharge, for years, of the most arduous and humble
duties, and even of menial and revolting offices. It may be that my
readers all are not so well acquainted with this little book as
ourselves, and, if so, they will not consider the following extract
too long.

"They lived three years and a half in Holland, and in that time she
made a second voyage to Scotland about business. Her father went by
the borrowed name of Dr. Wallace, and did not stir out for fear of
being discovered, though who he was, was no secret to the wellwishers
of the revolution. Their great desire was to have a good house, as
their greatest comfort was at home; and all the people of the same way
of thinking, of which there were great numbers, were continually with
them. They paid for their house what was very extravagant for their
income, nearly a fourth part; they could not afford keeping any
servant, but a little girl to wash the dishes.

"All the time they were there, there was not a week that my mother did
not sit up two nights, to do the business that was necessary. She went
to market, went to the mill to have the corn ground, which it seems is
the way with good managers there, dressed the linen, cleaned the
house, made ready the dinner, mended the children's stockings and
other clothes, made what she could for them, and, in short, did
everything.

"Her sister, Christian, who was a year or two younger, diverted her
father and mother and the rest who were fond of music. Out of their
small income they bought a harpsichord for little money, but is a
_Rucar_ now in my custody, and most valuable. My aunt played and sang
well, and had a great deal of life and humour, but no turn to
business. Though my mother had the same qualifications, and liked it
as well as she did, she was forced to drudge; and many jokes used to
pass betwixt the sisters about their different occupations. Every
morning before six my mother lighted her father's fire in his study,
then waked him (she was ever a good sleeper, which blessing, among
many others, she inherited from him); then got him, what he usually
took as soon as he got up, warm small beer with a spoonful of bitters
in it, which he continued his whole life, and of which I hav