A rusty thimble

On Monday evening a poor woman with a little boy in her hand, and another on her back, travelling from Salisbury to Blandford, and mistaking her way in the heaviness of the snow, as is supposed, perished with her two miserable infants, and was discovered by a shepherd's dog, covered over with snow very early the next morning. She had three farthings in her pocket, a bit of bread and cheese, and a rusty thimble.