146 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



weather. Accordingly, before breakfast was well 

 over, the clouds began to collect about the 

 mountain tops, and it is now raining. I 

 have already made some progress in transcribing 

 Mrs. P.'s memoir for my dear mamma; and if 

 his prediction be correct, I shall have time to 

 finish it before the return of dry weather. 



MRS. P.'s NARRATIVE. 



I am now going to fulfil my promise, Bertha, 

 by giving you a sketch of my life ; and as 1 shall 

 begin by a detail of those early circumstances 

 which have unceasingly influenced its happiness 

 or misery, there will seldom be occasion to inter- 

 rupt my narrative in order to point out their 

 consequences. You will have no difficulty in 

 perceiving how inevitably my errors led to their 

 punishment ; how certainly the heart is corrupted 

 by selfish indulgence ; and how pursuits that in 

 themselves are laudable may become pernicious, 

 if not controlled by a sense of duty. 



I was unfortunately what is called a very pro- 

 mising child, quick in all my perceptions, and 

 equally capable of retaining the knowledge I so 

 readily acquired. My parents, delighted at my 

 progress, were proud of their child ; and by 

 friends and visiters I was considered a prodigy. 

 This injudicious praise had so powerful an effect, 

 that when I was about twelve years old I deter- 



