Page:Duty and Inclination. Volume 3.pdf/11

Rh 'Tis in habitations such as these, where the honest peasant dwells, where content smiles through indigence, that the affluent, the proud, may learn to bound their wishes, and perceive the vanity of wealth. A neat simplicity adorned the rustic cot, and poor old Madge, the wife of the aged labourer already described, hobbled forth, oppressed with years, but with all the testimonies of cordiality, to welcome his visitors. She had been just employed in the task of feeding some newly hatched chickens, which Rosilia begged she would continue, lending also her assistance, often desisting from her work to fondle and cherish the little half-fledged fluttering things.

Obliged at length to obey the mandate of her mother, she turned to follow her, when, as she did so, she caught Sir Howard's deep and penetrating eye. What a child! what infantine simplicity! thought he; yet combined with a judgment so mature, an intelligence so rich! Surely she is a riddle; the more I study her, the less I appear to understand her. Recollecting himself he was quickly at the side of Mrs. De Brooke, to whom he was ever cautious of paying his chief attentions.

"'Tis truly a neat and comfortable asylum," said she, "bestowed, if I judge aright, by the hand of charity, where age may find a shelter from the buffets of adversity."

She would gladly have extracted some little history relative to the venerable pair; but Sir Howard, with an apparent reserve, seemed desirous of evading