Her Father Called Her Beauty

Marlee Belle was one of six children. She had two sisters and three brothers. Her brothers adored her, but her sisters did not. They were jealous of her because she was so beautiful and always so happy. They thought she was foolish because she was always smiling and singing happy songs. People often saw her walking with her dog speaking and waving to friends as she went. Her father absolutely adored her. He tended to dote on her and offer her gifts of beautiful things more often than he did her sisters.  She was so beautiful that he often called her Beauty, but not around her brothers and sisters. She often refused her father's gifts and said, "I have everything I need, father. You can give your beautiful gifts to my sisters."

Her father was a very very rich man. They lived in a huge home and had many servants that did everything for them; cooking, cleaning, laundry and gardening. They had servants that fed the animals outside and made sure that flowers were planted and the lawn trimmed.
Her father owned many ships that carried merchandise from other countries that people purchased from him. These ships were called merchant ships in those days.

 His daughters all had beautiful clothing and jewels from their ears to their toes. As Marlee Belle's sisters grew older they had many gentlemen callers wishing them to be their wives. In those days when a man married a woman she brought to their marriage what was called a dowry. The more wealthy the father of the girl, the bigger the dowry so often it was not love that the man brought to the marriage, but greed for the father's wealth and property. It angered Marlee Belle's sisters that she had more offers of marriage than they did. They were jealous of her good nature and beauty. They often showed their displeasure to Marlee Belle by giving her sour looks and talking amongst themselves about her. They even called her names behind her back. But they never ever let their father know how poorly they treated poor little Marlee Belle for fear of losing his favor as well as the gifts he was so very generous with.

Marlee Belle's father was soon to be served a terrible blow. One day their big beautiful house caught on fire. It burned to the ground and along with it all of their beautiful furniture and books that had all of the accounts in it of merchants that he owed money to. He also lost all of his gold and silver. Oh it was a terrible day, that's for sure. More bad fortune was soon to follow.  The huge ships that he owned were doomed to be lost at sea. Some were robbed by pirates, and others were blown by terrible high winds and smashed upon the rocks or sunk to the bottom of the ocean floor. Those big ships were full of valuable merchandise that would never be found.
All of a sudden it seemed none of his friends liked him. He was shunned by his neighbors. He no longer had any money or friends. To Marlee Belle's father it seemed like the whole world was against him.

He had only one option and that was to move his family to a little house in the country. It was his very last possession.