Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ... alice dugdale. chapter I. the doctor'S family. It used to be said in the village of Beetham that nothing ever went wrong with Alice Dugdale, --the meaning of which, perhaps, lay in the fact that she was determined that things should be made to go right. Things as they came were received by her with a gracious weleome, and "things," whatever they were, seemed to be so well pleased with the treatment afforded to them, that they too for most part made themselves gracious in return. Nevertheless she had had sorrows, as who has not? But she had kept her tears for herself, and had shown her smiles for the comfoiiy of those around her. In this little story it shall be told how in a certain period of her life she had suffered much;--how she still smiled, and how at last she got the better of her sorrow. Her father was the country doctor in the populous and straggling parish of Beetham. Beetham is one of those places so often found in ihe south of Englaud, half village, half town, for the existence of which there seems to be no special reason. It had no mayor, no municipality, no market, no pavements, and no gas. It was therefore no more titan a village;--but it had a doctor, and Alice's father, Dr. Dugdale, was the man. He had been established at Beetham for more than thirty years, and knew every pulse and every tongue for ten miles round. I do not know that he was very great as a doctor;--but he was a kind-hearted, liberal man, and he enjoyed the confidence of the Beethamites, which is everything. For thirty years he had worked hard and had brought up a large family without want. He was still working hard, though turned sixty, at the time of which we are speaking. He had even in his old age many children dependent on him, and though he had...
