Autobiographical Sketches

She was one of a large family, and her father and mother, gay, handsome, and extravagant, had wasted merrily what remained to them of patrimony. As the family grew larger and the moans grew smaller, many a pinch came on the household, and the parents were glad to accept the offer of a relative to take charge of Emily, the second daughter. A very proud old lady was this maiden aunt, and over the mantel piece of her drawing room ever hung a great diagram, a family tree, which mightily impressed the warm imagination of the delicate child she had taken in charge.