cares of my parents." On this occasion, Mrs. Davidson acted with equal
discretion and tenderness; she advised her to take a middle course,
neither to forsake her favourite pursuits, nor devote herself to them,
but use them in that wholesome alternation with the every day business
of the world, which is alike salutary for the body and the mind. She
therefore occasionally resumed her pen, and seemed comparatively happy.

How the encouragement which she received operated may be seen in some
lines, not otherwise worthy of preservation than for the purpose of
showing how the promises of reward affect a mind like hers. They were
written in her thirteenth year.


Whene'er the muse pleases to grace my dull page,
At the sight of _reward_, she flies off in a rage;
Prayers, threats, and intreaties I frequently try,
But she leaves me to scribble, to fret, and to sigh

She torments me each moment, and bids me go write,
And when I obey her she laughs at the sight;
The rhyme will not jingle, the verse has no sense,
And against all her insults I have no defence.

I advise all my friends who wish me to write,
To keep their rewards and their gifts from my sight,
So that jealous Miss Muse won't be wounded in pride,
Nor Pegasus rear till I've taken my ride.


Let not the hasty reader conclude from these rhymes that Lucretia was