h such a brute, and set off to a neighbor's
house, that she might have the pleasure of abusing him the longer.
John, whose mind was much disturbed, went up stairs without his
supper. As he was passing by Hester's little room he heard her
voice, and as he concluded she was venting bitter complaints against
her unnatural parents, he stopped to listen, resolved to go in and
comfort her. He stopped at the door, for, by the light of the moon,
he saw her kneeling by her bedside, and praying so earnestly that
she did not hear him. As he made sure she could be praying for
nothing but his death, what was his surprise to hear these words: "O
Lord have mercy upon my dear father and mother, teach me to love
them, to pray for them, and do them good; make me more dutiful and
more patient, that, adorning the doctrine of God, my Saviour, I may
recommend his holy religion, and my dear parents may be brought to
love and fear thee, through Jesus Christ."

Poor John, who would never have been hard-hearted if he had not been
a drunkard, could not stand this; he fell down on his knees,
embraced his child, and begged her to teach him how to pray. He
prayed himself as well as he could, and though he did not know what
words to use, yet his heart was melted; he owned he was a sinner,
and begged Hester to fetch the prayer-book, and read over the
confession with which he had been so struck at church. This was the
pleasantest order she had ever obeyed. Seeing him deeply affected
with a sense of sin, she pointed out to him the Saviour of sinners;
and in this manner she passed some hours with her father, which were
the happiest of her life; such a night was worth a hundred cotton or
even silk gowns. In the course of the week Hester read over the
confession, and some other prayers to her father so often that he
got them by heart, and repeated them while he was at work. She next
taught him the fifty-first psalm. At length he took courage to kneel
down and pray before he went to bed. From that time he bore his
wife's ill-humor much better than he had ever done, and, as he knew
her to be neat, and notable, and saving, he began to think, that if
her temper was not quite so bad, his home might still become as
pleasant a place to him as ever the Bell had been; but unless she
became more tractable he did not know what to do with his long
evenings after the little ones were in bed, for he began, once more,
to delight in playing with them. Hester proposed tha