religious principles, it was
with difficulty that she could rouse her mind from dwelling on her
perplexities, to form plans, and looking round to see what could be
done, and in what way she was to exert her powers for the benefit of her
brothers and sisters. She was sometimes oppressed by the thought that
the only prospect before her, was a melancholy one of long years of
struggles against poverty, and all the grievous evils of dependence.
Her brother Charles, who was a year younger than herself, tried with
some success to cheer her; he was of an active, enterprising
disposition, full of hope and cheerfulness. This disposition subjected
him to frequent disappointments, but his father had wisely guarded
against their bad effects by forming in him strong habits of
perseverance. Charles had been intended by his father for the same
business as himself, and he had therefore never been removed from under
his parent's eye. It was well now for the whole family that Charles had
been so carefully trained. His natural disposition, his acquired
habits, and his sense of responsibility, joined to his strong affection
for his sisters, made him the object on which Jane fixed her best hopes
for the future prosperity of the family. Charles encouraged her hopes,
and expressed confidence in his ability to maintain himself at present,
and to assist the younger ones when a few years should have matured his
powers of usefulness. Jane and Charles anxiously desired some
conversation with Mr Barker, the kind friend who had taken them into
his house; and were very glad when he invited them, the day after the
funeral, to a consultation on the state of their affairs. He told them
that it was his intention always to treat them with perfect openness, as
it had been their father's custom to do. He was the more inclined to do
so, from the knowledge that they were worthy of his confidence, that
they possessed prudence beyond their years, and that whatever exertions
they might make, would be more efficient if they knew perfectly what
they had to do, what objects were to be accomplished, and on what
sources they were to depend.

Mr Barker told them that when the affairs were all settled, their
income, he feared, would not exceed eighty or ninety pounds a year.
That he thought the first object ought to be to give the younger
children such an education as would fit them for supporting themselves
when they were old enough: that for this purpose the