one is a
source of happiness beyond what the idle can guess. After my child
was asleep at night, I read a chapter in the Bible to my parents,
whose eyes now began to fail them. We then thanked God over our
frugal supper of potatoes, and talked over the holy men of old, the
saints, and the martyrs who would have thought our homely fare a
luxury. We compared our peace, and liberty, and safety, with their
bonds, and imprisonment, and tortures; and should have been ashamed
of a murmur. We then joined in prayer, in which my absent parents
and my husband were never forgotten, and went to rest in charity
with the whole world, and at peace with our own souls."

"Oh! my forgiving child!" interrupted Mr. Bragwell, sobbing; "and
didst thou really pray for thy unnatural father? and didst thou lay
thee down in rest and peace? Then, let me tell thee, thou wast
better off than thy mother and I were. But no more of this; go on."

"Whether my father-in-law had worked beyond his strength, in order
to support me and my child, I know not, but he was taken dangerously
ill. While he lay in this state, he received an account that my
husband was dead in the West Indies of the yellow fever, which has
carried off such numbers of our countrymen; we all wept together,
and prayed that his awful death might quicken us in preparing for
our own. This shock joined to the fatigue of nursing her sick
husband, soon brought my poor mother to death's door. I nursed them
both, and felt a satisfaction in giving them all I had to bestow, my
attendance, my tears, and my prayers. I, who was once so nice and so
proud, so disdainful in the midst of plenty, and so impatient under
the smallest inconvenience, was now enabled to glorify God by my
activity and by my submission. Though the sorrows of my heart were
enlarged, I cast my burden on Him who cares for the weary and
heavy-laden. After having watched by these poor people the whole
night, I sat down to breakfast on my dry crust and coarse dish of
tea, without a murmur: my greatest grief was, lest I should bring
away the infection to my dear boy; for the fever was now become
putrid. I prayed to know what it was my duty to do between my dying
parents and my helpless child. To take care of the sick and aged,
seemed to be my first duty; so I offered up my child to Him who is
the father of the fatherless, and He in mercy spared him to me.

"The cheerful piety with which these good people breathed their
last, prove