ttage too,' said the
farmer; 'for if you refuse to do my work, I am not bound to keep my
engagement with you; as you will not obey me as a master, I shall
not pay you as a servant.' 'Sir,' said Mr. Simpson, 'I would gladly
obey you, but I have a Master in heaven whom I dare not disobey.'
'Then let him find employment for you,' said the enraged farmer;
'for I fancy you will get but poor employment on earth with these
scrupulous notions, and so send home my papers, directly, and pack
off out of the parish.' 'Out of your cottage,' said my husband, 'I
certainly will; but as to the parish, I hope I may remain in that,
if I can find employment.' 'I will make it too hot to hold you,'
replied the farmer, 'so you had better troop off bag and baggage:
for I am overseer, and as you are sickly, it is my duty not to let
any vagabonds stay in the parish who are likely to become
chargeable.'

"By the time my husband returned home, for he found it too late to
go to church, I had got our little dinner ready; it was a better one
than we had for a long while been accustomed to see, and I was
unusually cheerful at this improvement in our circumstances. I saw
his eyes full of tears, and oh! with what pain did he bring himself
to tell me that it was the last dinner we must ever eat in this
house. I took his hand with a smile, and only said, 'the Lord gave
and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.'
'Notwithstanding this sudden stroke of injustice,' said my husband,
'this is still a happy country. Our employer, it is true, may turn
us out at a moment's notice, because it is his own, but he has no
further power over us; he can not confine or punish us. His riches,
it is true, give him power to insult, but not to oppress us. The
same laws to which the affluent resort, protect _us_ also. And as to
our being driven out from a cottage, how many persons of the highest
rank have lately been driven out from their palaces and castles;
persons too, born in a station which he never enjoyed, and used to
all the indulgences of that rank and wealth we never knew, are at
this moment wandering over the face of the earth, without a house or
without bread; exiles and beggars; while we, blessed be God, are in
our own native land; we have still our liberty, our limbs, the
protection of just and equal laws, our churches, our Bibles, and our
Sabbaths.'

"This happy state of my husband's mind hushed my sorrows, and I
never once murmured; nay, I