Page:Traits and Trials.pdf/69

Rh imprisonment were a usual infliction, when they were leſt to brood over the assurance of their own extreme wickedness. Eda was with bitter regret that their spirits were quite broken, and that they were gradually confounding all ideas of right and wrong. Reverence to a parent is a child's first duty, and a parent's approbation is a child's sweetest reward. But how could she inculcate duty where it was utterly undeserved, and how hold forth that approbation which no exertion could gain? As to herself, nothing but the most devoted affection could have induced the faithful Indian to have remained under Mrs. Dalton's roof. Her mistress never spoke to her but with some paltry taunt reflecting on her country or her complexion. Her fellow servants, encouraged by such example, were insolent and unkind; every comfort due to her age and situation was withdrawn and she had a yet keener source of suffering in the condition of those who were far dearer to her than herself. But for their sakes she would have borne even death—for their sakes she