Page:A New England Tale.djvu/106

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A NEW-ENGLAND TALE.
95

not a talking body, and when all is ready, it will be time enough, not to ask Mrs. Wilson's leave, but to tell her your plans; you owe her nothing, my child, unless it be for keeping the furnace hot that purifies the gold. I would not make you discontented with your situation, but I cannot bear to see your mind as well as your body in slavery."

Mary's long harangue had given Jane a moment for reflection, and she now saw the obvious benefits to result from the adoption of her judicious friend's plan. The real sorrows that had shaded her short life, had taught her not to waste her sensibility on trifles. She doubtless felt it to be very painful to part with any memorials of her mother, but the moment she was convinced it was right and best she should do so, she consented, and cheerfully, to the arrangement. Mary entered immediately upon the execution of her plan.

Those who have been accustomed to use, and to waste, thousands, will smile with contempt at the difficulty of raising a hundred dollars. But let those persons be reduced to want so mean a sum, and they will cease to laugh at the obstacles in the way of getting it. Certain it is, that Mary, anxious and assiduous, spent four weeks in industrious application to those whom she thought most likely to be purchasers in the confined market of ———. The necessity of secrecy increased the difficulty of the transaction; but finally, zeal and perseverance mastered every obstacle, and Mary, with sparkling eyes, and a face that smiled all over in spite of its habitual sobriety, put Jane in pos-