Nay,
so liberally did this revenue support himself and
his ponies, called Pestle and Mortar, which he
exercised alternately, that he took a damsel to
share it, Jean Watson, namely, the cherry-cheeked
daughter of an honest farmer, who being herself
one of twelve children, who had been brought up
on an income of fourscore pounds a-year, never
thought there could be poverty in more than double
the sum; and looked on Gray, though now
termed by irreverent youth the Old Doctor, as a
very advantageous match. For several years they
had no children, and it seemed as if Doctor Gray,
who had so often assisted the efforts of the goddess
Lucina, was never to invoke her in his own behalf.
Yet his domestic roof was, on a remarkable occasion,
decreed to be the scene where the goddess's
art was required.
Late of an autumn evening three old women
might be observed plying their aged limbs through
the single street of the village at Middlemas towards
the honoured door, which, fenced off from
the vulgar causeway, was defended by a broken
paling, enclosing two slips of ground, half arable,
half overrun with an abortive attempt at shrubbery.
The door itself was blazoned with the name of
Gideon Gray, M.
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