t some of the
boys ran away. They had to go to bed every night at eight o'clock, and
what was worse, get up every morning at four. Then every little boy and
girl, unless they were poorly, had to fast every Friday, that is, they
were not allowed to have anything to eat all day until three o'clock.
But I had better not tell you any more of these dreadful rules, only you
may be very thankful that you are living in these days, when you have
much better times than the boys and girls who lived 150 years ago.

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CHAPTER XXXII.

A visit to Ireland.--The sack that did not contain
potatoes.--The bogie man.--What the sack did
contain.--The prayer-meeting in the barn.--Mr.
Charles Wesley gets married.--And so does Mr.
John.--Two niggers who became missionaries.

IN 1749 Mr. Wesley paid a visit to Ireland, where already he had many
followers. His brother Charles had visited there two years before, and
was a great favourite, for the Irish people love music, and would always
go to hear his hymns.

In many places in Ireland the Methodists were treated quite as badly as
they were in our own country; but the same angel of the Lord that
protected them in England followed them across the Irish sea.

There is a funny story told of how they were once saved from a band of
rough men. The Roman Catholics persecuted them so much at Wexford that
they were obliged to hold their meeting secretly in a barn. Once, one of
their persecutors got to know the night they were having a meeting, and
told his companions he would hide himself in the barn before the service
began, and then when it commenced he would open the door to them. They
thought this was a splendid idea. So the man went to the barn, and there
found an old sack or bag, big enough for him to get into. Into this he
crept, and by and by the people began to come, and the service
commenced. First, they sang a hymn; and somehow the man in the bag
enjoyed it so much, he quite forgot what he had come into the barn for.

He listened until the hymn was finished, and then he listened to the
prayer that followed, and after that he could not listen any more. He
couldn't get out of the bag, and he couldn't do anything but groan and
cry. God, through the hymn and the prayer, had touched his heart, and he
felt himself to be the greatest sinner in Ireland.

So he groaned and groaned, and at last some of