pearl neck-lace and purse of gold, which convinced her to the contrary, and, thereupon, she told her husband, that heaven had seen their want, and lent them these things to relieve their poverty, and they having no child, they were fully resolved to make this child their heir. The shepherd went to keep his flock, and his wife to look after her little nursery, but was so wise as to wrap it in a plain woolen blanket, keeping it neat and clean.
When Fawnia had attained to the age of seven years, the shepherd bought the lease of an adjoining farm, and a flock of sheep of his own, and, when Fawnia was ten years old, he sent her to keep them. They letting her know nothing, but that Porrus was her father, and his wife her mother, and she paid a dutiful regard to them. Porrus, rising by slow degrees, became a man of wealth and credit in the country, and purchased a considerable deal of land, which caused several farmer’s sons to make their addresses to Fawnia, whose beauty began to distinguish her from all the rest of the country; and, indeed, she appeared rather to be some heavenly nymph, than the daughter of a shepherd; and, when she arrived at the age of sixteen, she was not the least elevated by all the praises that were given her, but always demeaned herself as became a country maid, and the daughter of a poor shepherd.
It was about this time in which Fawnia was arrived to the bloom and perfection of beauty, that Dorastus, a prince about twenty years old, had been one day a hawking; and, on the same day, there was a meeting of all the shepherds daughters of Sicily, whether Fawnia was bidden, and she attired herself in best robes, where they spent the day in such diversions as were in use among shepherds. As Fawnia went home, she desiredone
