Transcriber's Note:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully aspossible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation.
Number One.
MY MOTHER'SGOLD RING.
FOUNDED ON FACT.
Eighth Edition.
Boston:
PUBLISHED BY FORD AND DAMRELL.
1833.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by
FORD AND DAMRELL,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
TO THE READER.
This is the first of a series of stories, of which itpossibly may be the beginning and the end. Theincident, which is the foundation of the followingtale, was communicated to the writer, by a valuedfriend, as a fact, with the name of the principalcharacter. Another friend, to whom the manuscriptwas given, perceiving some advantage in its publication,has thought proper to give it to the world,as Number One; from which I infer, that I amexpected to write a Number Two. The hint maybe worth taking, at some leisure moment. In themean time, pray read Number One: it can doyou no harm: there is nothing "sectarian" aboutit. When you have read it, if, among all yourconnexions and friends, you can think of none,whom its perusal may possibly benefit—and it willbe strange if you cannot—do me the favor to presentit to the first little boy that you meet. He will,[Pg 4]no doubt, take it home to his mother or his father.If you will not do this, throw it in the street,as near to some dram-seller's door, as you everventure to go: let it take the course of the flyingseed, which God is pleased to entrust to the keepingof the winds: it may yet spring up and bear fruit,if such be the will of Him, who giveth the increase.
THE GOLD RING.
I have one of the kindest husbands: he isa carpenter by trade, and our flock of littlechildren has one of the kindest fathers inthe county. I was thought the luckiest girlin the parish, when G—— T—— made mehis wife: I thought so myself. Our wedding-day—andit was a happy one—was but anindifferent sample of those days of rationalhappiness and uninterrupted harmony, whichwe were permitted to enjoy together, forthe space of six years. And although, forthe last three years of our lives, we havebeen as happy as we were at the beginning,it makes my heart sick to think of those longdark days and sad nights, that came between;for, two years of our union were years of[Pg 6]misery. I well recollect the first glass ofardent spirit that my husband ever drank.He had been at the grocery to purchase alittle tea and sugar for the family; therewere three cents coming to him in change;and, unluckily, the Deacon, who keeps theshop, had nothing but silver in the till; and,as it was a sharp, frosty morning, he persuadedmy good man to take his money's worth ofrum, for it was just the price of a glass. Hecame home in wonderful spirits, and told mehe meant to have me and the children betterdressed, and, as neighbor Barton talked of sellinghis horse and chaise, he thought of buyingthe