'Long, Long Ago', by Mary Lisle (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1856. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI. THE GREAT FROST. 'The keener tempests rise; and fuming down From all the livid east, or piercing nerth, Thick clouds ascend; in whose capacious womb A vapoury deluge lies to snow congeal'd, Heavy they rolled their fleecy world along, And the sky saddens with the gathered storm.' Winter. Thomson's Seasons. 1813, three and forty years ago What a period It almost seems impossible that so many years should have passed since then. Three-and-forty years must I look back to the days of which I am about to speak. It was in August, 1812, that Eleanor was married; and it was in October, 1813, that her first child was born. She and her husband were then living at Canterbury. She wrote to my father and mother to request them to be the sponsors for her infant, and begged that they and Agnes would come and pay her a visit. She said she was very sorry that she could not include me, but the house was extremely small, and the closet she destined for Agnes would, by no manner of means, hold two. My dear mother demurred a little, in spite of her great desire to see Eleanor and Eleanor's baby, to leaving me behind, not that there was any difficulty beyond what our feelings made, for I could easily have been sent to New Court, where my uncle and aunt, Gen. Sir William and Lady Lisle, were then living, having returned to-England the year after the death of poor Charles. But I was still, though between sixteen and seventeen, treated somewhat like a child, and being the youngest, and very short and slight, no one seemed to remember that I was actually grown up. I was still 'May' with everybody, excepting that my father sometimes called me 'his little girl, ' and 'little white chicken, ' still enjoyed some of the petting and caressing usually bestowed only on the first years...