onesty of his character quite unnecessary.

Seated on a high stool, and wholly overcome by fatigue, cold, and
weariness, after a long winter's night, passed in unceasing labour, the
poor lapidary had fallen asleep on his block, with his head upon his
half-frozen arms, and his forehead resting against a small grindstone,
placed horizontally on the table, and generally put in motion by a
little hand-wheel, while a fine steel saw, and various other tools
belonging to his trade, were lying beside him. The man himself, of whom
nothing but the skull, surrounded by a fringe of gray hairs, was
visible, was dressed in a shabby fustian jacket, without any species of
linen or garment beneath it, and an old pair of cloth trousers, while
his worn-out slippers scarcely concealed the blue, cold feet they
partially covered, from resting solely on the damp, shiny floor; and so
bitter, so freezing, was the sharp winter wind which freely entered into
this scarcely human dwelling, that, spite of the weariness and
exhaustion of the overworked artisan, his frame shuddered and shivered
with involuntary frequency. The length of the wick of the unsnuffed
candle bespoke the length of time even this uneasy slumber must have
lasted, and no sound save his troubled and irregular breathing broke the
deathlike silence that prevailed; for, alas! the other occupants of this
mean abode were not so fortunate as to be able to forget their
sufferings in sleep. Yet this narrow, pent-up, unwholesome spot
contained no less than seven other persons,--five children, the youngest
of whom was four years of age, the eldest twelve, a sick and declining
wife, with an aged grandmother, the parent of Morel's wife, now in her
eightieth year, and an idiot!

The cold must have been intense, indeed, when the natural warmth of so
many persons, so closely packed together in so small a place, could not
in any way affect the freezing atmosphere; it was evident, therefore,
to speak scientifically, that but little caloric was given out by the
poor, weak, emaciated, shivering creatures, all suffering and almost
expiring with cold and hunger, from the puny infant to the idiotic old
grandmother.

With the exception of the father of the family, who had temporarily
yielded to the aching of his heavy eyelids, no other creature slept,--no
other; because cold, starvation, and sickness will not allow so sweet an
enjoyment as the closing the eyes in peaceful rest. Little does the
world