Page:History of Cinderella, or, The little glass slipper (1).pdf/17



many years ago, there lived in the county of Norfolk a gentleman and his lady. The gentleman was brave, generous, and honourable; and the lady gentle, beautiful, and virtuous: they were beloved by all who knew them, and were blessed with two children, a boy and a girl. The boy was only about three years old, and the girl not quite two, when the gentleman was seized with a dangerous malady, and the lady, in attending her beloved husband, caught the contagion. Notwithstanding every medical assistance their disorder daily increased, and as they expected to be soon snatched away from their little babes, they sent for the gentleman’s brother, and gave the darlings into his care.

“Ah! brother,” said the dying man, “you see I have but a short time to live; yet neither death nor pain can pierce my heart with half so much anguish as what I feel at the thought of that these dear babes will do without a parent’s care. Brother they will have none but you to be kind to them, to see them clothed and fed, and to teach them to be good.”