Languages & literature > Aurus clavus, or, The adventures of a gold trinket, supposed to have been written by itself

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two sons and four lovely daughters, three of
whom had been in a very bad state of health for
some time. Consumption came creeping in
upon them like a serpent among flowers, gra¬
dually undermining their health and depriving
them of that cheerfulness and elasticity of
spirits which are so natural to buoyant youth,
and was especially so to them, for a happier and
blither family were not to be found. It would
have delighted the heart of even the most
morbid and insensitive to have seen them sitting
around their father’s hearth, each singing their
favourite ditty in turn—such as the “ The
Bonny House o’ Airlie,” “ The Blue Bells
of Scotland,” “ Auld Robin Gray,” or “ My
Boy Tammy,” and occasionally indulging in
humorous slaps of wit, which were received and
given like transferences of golden coin.—
But these joys were fast taking to themselves
wings to fly away and desert the hearts they
had once so kindly warmed. A sickly pale¬
ness overspread their faces, and it seemed as if
the dark cloud of eternal night was fast
lowering to envelope them in its dark Cemerian
womb. Their mother looked forward to fu¬
turity with mournful anticipation and dark for-
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