The shops were beautifully lighted up by gas, and the last three days
before Christmas all that could tempt or attract was exhibited in the
market-places in booths lighted up in the evening, whither everybody
hastened to gaze and to spend their money. Cooks and housemaids
presented one another with knitted bags and purses; the cobbler's
daughter embroidered "neck-cushions" for her friend the butcher's
daughter. These were made up by the upholsterer at great expense, lined
with white satin; the upper part, on which the back rested, being
wrought with gold, silver, and pearls.
* * * * *
But we must no longer delay the reader by our gossip. Enough has been
said to illustrate the character of a remarkable woman, and of those
features of it--her cheerfulness, her patience, her industry, her
devoted affection, her unselfishness--which all of us may be the better
for studying and imitating. Our limits compel us to draw our simple
narrative to a close, and we must pass over the delight with which she
received and read Sir John Herschel's great work, "Cape
Observations,"--a noble monument of the perseverance and strenuous
labour of genius; but of twofold interest to her, because it not only
testified to the eminent qualities of her nephew, but brought to a noble
conclusion the vast undertaking of that nephew's father and her own
beloved brother--the survey of the nebulous heavens.
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