t she herself
should teach him to read an hour every night, and he consented.
Rebecca began to storm, from the mere trick she had got of storming;
but finding that he now brought home all his earnings, and that she
got both his money and his company (for she had once loved him), she
began to reconcile herself to this new way of life. In a few months
John could read a psalm. In learning to read it he also got it by
heart, and this proved a little store for private devotion, and
while he was mowing or reaping, he could call to mind a text to
cheer his labor. He now went constantly to church, and often dropped
in at the school on a Sunday evening to hear their prayers. He
expressed so much pleasure at this, that one day Hester ventured to
ask him if they should set up family prayer at home? John said he
should like it mightily, but as he could not yet read quite well
enough, he desired Hester to try to get a proper book and begin next
Sunday night. Hester had bought of a pious hawker, for three half
pence,[9] the Book of Prayers, printed for the Cheap Repository, and
knew she should there find something suitable.

[9] These prayers may be had also divided into two parts, one fit
for private persons, the other for families, price one half-penny.

When Hester read the exhortation at the beginning of this little
book, her mother who sat in the corner, and pretended to be asleep,
was so much struck that she could not find a word to say against it.
For a few nights, indeed, she continued to sit still, or pretended
to rock the young child while her husband and daughter were kneeling
at their prayers. She expected John would have scolded her for this,
and so perverse was her temper, that she was disappointed at his
finding no fault with her. Seeing at last that he was very patient,
and that though he prayed fervently himself he suffered her to do as
she liked, she lost the spirit of opposition for want of something
to provoke it. As her pride began to be subdued, some little
disposition to piety was awakened in her heart. By degrees she slid
down on her knees, though at first it was behind the cradle, or the
clock, or in some corner where she thought they would not see her.
Hester rejoiced even in this outward change in her mother, and
prayed that God would at last be pleased to touch her heart as he
had done that of her father.

As John now spent no idle money, he had saved up a trifle by working
over-hours; this he kindly