Strive and thrive: A tale

by Mary Botham Howitt

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1840. ... est and most friendly interest in him; and, when he had been rather more than two years at school--on his seventeenth birthday, in fact--he was admitted as junior clerk in Mr. Spenser's countinghouse; an event which filled the widow's heart and house with gladness. We must now go back a year and a half at least, and return to Grace, who henceforth will be the principal character in our little history. CHAPTER XIII. SECRET SCHEMES. As Mrs. Walsingham's circumstances improved, she became anxious that Grace, who seemed the only one unbenefited by them, should share some of their advantages as well as the other members of the family. But Grace, in many respects, was peculiar; she was a being extraordinarily gifted, and, under prosperous circumstances, would have been the flattered, courted, and, probably, the spoiled child of her character, too, would have been transparent as water; but, chilled as she had insensibly been by early poverty, by witnessing the privations, and, often, the concealed suffering of those most dear to her, she had learned to veil her own feelings, and even while indulging an almost morbid sensitiveness of spirit, wearing outwardly an appearance of coldness and reserve. Her father, had he lived, would perfectly have understood her, but he would have been far from the best guide for a being so constituted. Grace, though she had neither fear nor distrust of her mother, dreaded so much the adding to her difficulties, or the receiving an over proportion of indulgence or consideration from her, that she never made her her confidant; and although she loved her elder brother and sister, and had the most profound respect for them, yet they were never admitted to her most secret feelings. It was Jack--the gay, volatile, lighthearted Jac...

Hardcover

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

Mary Howitt (12 March 1799 – 30 January 1888) was an English poet, and author of the famous poem The Spider and the Fly.

She was born Mary Botham at Coleford, in Gloucestershire, the temporary residence of her parents, while her father, Samuel Botham, a prosperous Quaker of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, was looking after some mining property. Samuel had married his wife Ann in South Wales in 1796, when he was 38 and she was 32. They had four children Anna, Mary, Emma and Charles. Their Queen Anne house is now known as Howitt Place. Mary Botham was educated at home, read widely, and began writing verse at a very early age.

Reviews

[Glenn Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good and well written story, ruined by the whinging, completely dislikeable main character, Edward Walsingham. By the halfway point I gave up, wanting only for someone to slap him across the back of the head and tell him to wake up to himself.