Page:The German Novelists (Volume 3).djvu/35

Rh have encircled the whole city, walls and suburbs included, of Bremen. Yet they seemed born for a better fate than a spinning-wheel; they were of a good family, and at one period had lived in great respectability. For the Lady Brigitta’s husband, and the fair Mela’s father, was the owner of a merchant vessel, which he freighted on his own account, and every year made a voyage to the city of Antwerp. He had, however, the misfortune to be lost in a storm—ship, cargo, and crew, were all swallowed up in the waves.

His wife, a well-principled, prudent woman, bore the loss with exemplary fortitude; and the more so for her daughter’s sake. Yet she nobly rejected all offers of assistance from the hand of charitable friends and relatives; declaring that it was dishonourable to receive alms so long as she was enabled to support herself by the work of her hands. She gave up her grand establishment in favour of the creditors, who had the meanness to take every thing, while she had sought refuge in daily toil, under her present humble roof. At first, to be sure, such occupation proved irksome to her; often she moistened the flax with her tears. Industry, however, went hand in hand with independence; she submitted to no uneasy obligations, and habituated her daughter to the same sentiments and the same mode of life. They lived so frugally, as VOL. III.