These two females were born for a better fate than the spinning-wheel, they came of a good family, and had lived, at one time, in opulence and prosperity. The husband of mother Brigitta, and the father of young Mela, had been the owner of a merchant-vessel, which he freighted himself, and in which he made every year a voyage to Antwerp. But while Mela was yet a child, a dreadful storm, buried him and his ship, with the crew and a rich cargo in the waves.
Her mother, a sensible well-principled woman, bore the loss of her husband and of her whole property with wise composure. Notwithstanding her poverty, she refused, with a noble pride, all the offers of assistance, which the compassion or benevolence of her friends and relations prompted them to make; deeming it dishonourable to receive alms, as long as she could hope to obtain the means of subsistance by the labour of her hands. She resigned her large house and its costly furniture, to the hard-hearted creditors of her late husband, took her present humble dwelling, and spun from morning till night. At first, this
