George Brewer

ACUTE PAIN

“See how the eyebrows approach each other, and rise towards the middle; the eyeball is hid under the eyebrow; the nostrils rise, and make a wrinkle in the cheeks; the mouth half opens, and draws back; all the parts of the face are agitated, in proportion to the violence of the pain.

“I think, my dear children, that I can tell you a story, which will, in its incidents, comprise several of the situations and passions which follow, in this book of Le Brun. I had it from a French lady, and it is called

The Mother and her little Family.

“A scholar of the University of Basle, named Henry D’Orange, and who was the only son of the rich Marquis D’Orange, was riding one day towards a small town, when, as he approached, he observed a great number of people gathered together, at the end of a narrow street. The scholar rode up to them, to inquire into the cause of the tumult, when one of the persons, an honest shopkeeper, who happened to be standing on the step of his door, made answer, ‘Ah, sir, a poor unhappy woman is the cause of all this disturbance.’—‘How so?’ said the scholar.—‘You don’t know, sir,’ returned the honest merchant, ‘how well this good creature deserves the pity of the poor people who are her neighbours, and who would willingly go to the greatest extremities to relieve her, did she not herself forbid it, and entreat them not to interfere with the course of justice.’—‘I cannot yet comprehend you,’ answered the young scholar; ‘what has happened to her?’—’Many misfortunes, sir, one after another.—She is a widow; she has six children; she lost her husband after he had been confined a year to his bed. I think, sir, that I see him now; his eyebrows drawn together; the eye as if fixed on some object; the nostrils raised, making a wrinkle in his worn cheeks; the mouth half opened and drawn back; and every part agitated in proportion to what he suffered.’

“Behold,” cried Mr. Willock,“the picture.