1. CHAPTER I.
CAROLINE ARCHER Was the most beautiful
milliner's apprentice that tripped along
the streets of Philadelphia. She was just
seventeen; with the softest brown hair, that
would burst into a thousand ringlets over the
neck and shoulders, all she could do to teach
it to lay demurely on her cheek, as a milliner's
apprentice should do. Her eyes were of
the deepest blue of the June sky after a fine
shower, not that showers often visited her
brilliant orbs, for she was as happy-hearted
as a child, and to sing all day long was as
natural to her as to the robin red-breast—at
least it was until she became a milliner's apprentice,
when she was forbid to sing by her
austere mistress, as if a maiden's fingers
would not move as nimbly with a cheerful
carol on her tongue. Her smile was like
light, it was so beaming; and then it was so
full of sweetness, and gentle-heartedness!
It was delightful to watch her fine face with
a smile mantling its classical features, and
her coral lips just parted showing the most
beautiful teeth in the world. One could not
but fall in love with her outright at sight—
yet there was a certain elevated purity and
dignity about her that checked lightness or
thought of evil in relation to her.
Caroline Archer was the daughter of the
widow of a highly respectable merchant, who
died during the cholera season. After his
death he was found to be insolvent, and from
affluence and comfort, Mrs. Archer became
poor and dependent on her own exertions.—
Possessing native energy of character and
inspired to exertion by the necessity of providing
for four children, the eldest of whom,
our heroine Caroline, was but nine years of
age, she collected a remnant of furniture,
and tenanted a small but neat house in an
obscure street in the rear of Arch street.
Here she eked out a little pittance which
she had saved from the sale of her jewelry,
by taking in sewing from mantua-makers and
milliners, and by needle and worsted-work,
which she disposed of when completed at
the usual depositories for such articles. Thus
by great care, prudence and industry, she
was enabled to clothe and educate Caroline
and the three boys, and even to save up four
hundred dollars, which she placed at interest
in the Saving's Bank. Caroline at length
reached her fifteenth year, and at that age
gave promise of the loveliness that we have
described her as possessing. Her mother
now looked forward to the time when she
should become a governess, for for that station
had she been educating her, and between
hope and fear was now about to draw
upon the little means she had husbanded for
this very purpose, and place her under a
music and French master. It was at this
period that the pecuniary tornado burst upon
the land; and the very morning she would
have gone to the bank, in which she had deposited
her little earnings, she learned that
the institution had become bankrupt and
worthless. She had lost her all! Without
a murmur, for she was a Christian, and true
Christianity had taught her to school her
heart to the teachings of adversity, she banished
her ambitious hopes for her child for
ever from her breast, and placed her, the
very day on which she had learned her adversity,
as an apprentice to a miliner and
mantua-maker in Walnut street.
At the period of our story Caroline had
been nearly two years an apprentice, during
which time sorrow and maternal anxiety had
undermined her mother's health so far that
she was unable to contribute longer to the
support of her family, the care of which
now devolved on this noble girl. All day
she laboured at her needle in the little back
parlor of the shop. Her task done, she hastened
home through the twilight to attend to
the domestic duties of her little family. After
her brothers were a-bed, she would sit by
the wasting invalid and toil till midnight over
her sewing to earn an additional sum to purchase
for her those little comforts so grateful
to the sick. Her brothers, thanks to the
munificent school system of the city, were
taught daily at the public school without expense,
and, save the homely provision for
their table, they were happy and well enough
off. Caroline alone bore all the burden of
toil and anxiety. Yet she shrunk not from
it, but unweariedly, with a cheerful temper
and a light heart, gave herself a willing sacrifice
to her filial affection. Woman in
adversity rise into the angel.
