d, for the king's ransom: this was a large old
Bible, which lay on the window-seat, neatly covered with brown
cloth, variously patched. This sacred book was most reverently
preserved from dog's ears, dirt, and every other injury but such as
time and much use had made it suffer in spite of care. On the clean
white walls were pasted a hymn on the Crucifixion of our Saviour, a
print of the Prodigal Son, the Shepherd's hymn, a _New History of a
True Book_, an Patient Joe, or the Newcastle Collier.[2]

[2] Printed for the Cheap Repository.

After the first salutations were over, Mr. Johnson said that if they
would go on with their dinner he would sit down. Though a good deal
ashamed, they thought it more respectful to obey the gentleman, who
having cast his eye on their slender provisions, gently rebuked the
shepherd for not having indulged himself, as it was Sunday, with a
morsel of bacon to relish his potatoes. The shepherd said nothing,
but poor Mary colored and hung down her head, saying, "Indeed, sir,
it is not my fault; I did beg my husband to allow himself a bit of
meat to-day out of your honor's bounty; but he was too good to do
it, and it is all for my sake." The shepherd seemed unwilling to
come to an explanation, but Mr. Johnson desired Mary to go on. So
she continued: "You must know, sir, that both of us, next to a sin,
dread a debt, and indeed in some cases a debt is a sin; but with all
our care and pains, we have never been able quite to pay off the
doctor's bill for that bad fit of rheumatism which I had last
winter. Now when you were pleased to give my husband that kind
present the other day, I heartily desired him to buy a bit of meat
for Sunday, as I said before, that he might have a little
refreshment for himself out of your kindness. 'But,' answered he,
'Mary, it is never out of my mind long together that we still owe a
few shillings to the doctor (and thank God it is all we did owe in
the world). Now if I carry him his money directly it will not only
show him our honesty and our good-will, but it will be an
encouragement to him to come to you another time in case you should
be taken once more in such a bad fit; for I must own,' added my poor
husband, 'that the thought of your being so terribly ill without any
help, is the only misfortune that I want courage to face.'"

Here the grateful woman's tears ran down so fast that she could not
go on. She wiped them with the corner of her apron, and humbly
b