Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/178

 with prayer; and Mrs Mason retired to her room, under a full conviction, that in the society of people who so sincerely served and worshipped God, all the materials of happiness would be within her reach.

Her bed appeared so inviting from the delicate whiteness of the linen, that she hastened to enjoy in it the sweets of repose; but no sooner had her head reached the pillow, than she became sick, and was so overcome by a feeling of suffocation, that she was obliged to sit up for air. Upon examination she found, that the smell which annoyed her, proceeded from new feathers put into the pillow before they had been properly dried, and when they were consequently full of the animal oil, which, when it becomes rancid, sends forth an intolerable effluvia. Having removed the annoyance, and made of her clothes a bundle to support her head, she again composed herself to sleep. But alas, in vain! for the enemy by