Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

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THE ATTEMPT
aid. A few words explained the cause of his trouble. His grandfather, who had
been ailing for some time, had suddenly died, and left the children, who had previ¬
ously been deprived of both parents, in the utmost consternation and distress. The
heart of the kind peasant was moved with compassion at the sight of so much misery,
and having ascertained that the poor little ones were without food and money of any
kind, he persuaded them without much difficulty to accompany him to his own home.
We need not describe the kindness with which good Gretchen Holz received
the trembling children, and comforted their aching hearts with tender loving words
and caresses; nor how the next day the board, so plentifully spread, was surrounded
by happy faces, and the sweet voices of children again rang through the old kitchen.
And who shall say that, as Carl and Gretchen saw the placid contentment that
illumined the features of the aged Dorothea (who had not been forgotten), and
heard the fervent blessings that she poured on her benefactors, and listened to the
glad voices of the children, there had ever been a Christmas fraught with more real
and enduring happiness to them; for, as Carl afterwards remarked to his wife, had
not “ the blessing of them that were ready to perish come upon them 1 ”
Agatha.
One fine day in spring, when the London season was just commencing with its
heat and bustle, and the streets were once more thronged with busy passengers, a tall
military-looking gentleman entered a fashionable shop at the West-End to make a
few purchases. When about to leave the shop, he was detained by the shopman
producing a beautiful mother-of-pearl shoehorn, and saying, “ This, sir, would only
cost you two guineas, and would make an elegant present for your lady. I sold just
such another to the Queen.” “ But my wife is not the Queen,” replied the customer.
“ Sir, she is your queen,” said the ready shopman, with a bow. This argument was
unanswerable, so the gentleman paid the required sum, and carried off the shoehorn.
On his return home, his young wife was much pleased with the present, and laid it on
her toilet-table, determining to use it only with the greatest care.
Several years had passed away, when a manly-looking boy, of some ten or twelve
years, ran eagerly into his room to prepare for some Saturday excursion with his
school-fellows. But when it came to putting on his shoes, his shoehorn was no where
to be found, and his strong shoes resisted all his endeavours to pull them on with his