At such a moment your best policy will be
to have blood let, take physic, and go with all diligence to your
prayers.
There was no sort of warning on the part of the natural to the
moral world, on the day when Alfred Stevens set forth with the
worthy John Cross, to visit the flock of the latter. There was
not a lovelier morning in the whole calendar. The sun was alone
in heaven, without a cloud; and on earth, the people in and about
Charlemont, having been to church only the day before, necessarily
made their appearance everywhere with petticoats and pantaloons
tolerably clean and unrumpled. Cabbages had not yet been
frost-bitten. Autumn had dressed up her children in the garments
of beauty, preparatory to their funeral. There was a good crop of
grain that year, and hogs were brisk, and cattle lively, and all
"looking-up," in the language of the prices current. This was long
before the time when Mr. M---- made his famous gammon speeches; but
the people had a presentiment of what was coming, and to crown the
eventful anticipations of the season, there was quite a freshet in
Salt river.
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