ed rather to the respectability and former wealth of her
family, than to its subsequent reduced condition, became in early life the
wife of a merchant of our village, a man of good character and fair
prospects, to whom she was much attached. Traders in New-England where
wealth is so eagerly sought, are, especially in country towns, men of much
consideration, as engaged in a money-making business. Mrs. Selden,
therefore, independently of her personal merits, was not likely to be
neglected. Her company was sought by the best society of our place, and
she exchanged visits on equal terms even with the families of the
clergyman and the village lawyer.

[1] Men who are yearly selected by the inhabitants to superintend
the business of the town, and who, among other duties, have
the charge of managing the poor.

A few years of quiet enjoyment passed, happily varied by the accession of
a fair and delicate little girl, who might be seen at their cheerful meals
seated in her high chair, the common object of their care and attention;
and not only affording in her fragile little person the strongest bond of
union, but the never-tiring subject of conversation. Sad indeed was the
change in this once happy family, when the widow and orphan sat alone at
the cheerless board. Death had entered and taken from them the sun of
their little world. The bereaved wife might have sunk under this calamity,
had not maternal solicitude been mixed with grief. With that admirable
fortitude and submission to duty so common to those of her sex in similar
circumstances, she at once devoted herself with increased solicitude to
the remaining object of her care and affection.

For a time but little change was visible in the family arrangements, for
though a sensitive she was a spirited woman. Her garden, which had been
the pride and delight of her husband, still flourished in perfect
neatness. After the usual time of decent seclusion, she again interchanged
visits with her friends and neighbors, and continued to maintain the stand
in the village society which had always been conceded to her. But this
state of things did not long continue, for alas! the _gathering_ as well
as the _protecting_ hand was removed. Her more aristocratic acquaintances
now began to remark that her table showed less of plenty and variety than
formerly, and that her dress, though perfectly neat, was less new and
fashionable than they expected in _their_ associate