CHAP. IX.

_How Little_ Margery _was made
Principal of a Country College._

Mrs. _Williams_, of whom I have given a particular Account in my _New
Year's Gift_, and who kept a College for instructing little Gentlemen
and Ladies in the Science of A, B, C, was at this Time very old and
infirm, and wanted to decline that important Trust. This being told to
Sir _William Dove_, who lived in the Parish, he sent for Mrs.
_Williams_, and desired she would examine Little _Two-Shoes_, and see
whether she was qualified for the Office.----This was done, and Mrs.
_Williams_ made the following Report in her Favour, namely, _that
Little_ Margery _was the best Scholar, and had the best Head, and the
best Heart of any one she had examined_. All the Country had a great
Opinion of Mrs. _Williams_, and this Character gave them also a great
Opinion of Mrs. _Margery_; for so we must now call her.

This Mrs. _Margery_ thought the happiest Period of her Life; but
more Happiness was in Store for her. GOD Almighty heaps up Blessings
for all those who love him, and though for a Time he may suffer them
to be poor and distressed, and hide his good Purposes from human
Sight, yet in the End they are generally crowned with Happiness
here, and no one can doubt of their being so hereafter.

On this Occasion the following Hymn, or rather a Translation of the
twenty-third Psalm, is said to have been written, and was soon after
published in the _Spectator_.

I.

The Lord my Pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a Shepherd's Care:
His Presence shall my Wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful Eye;
My Noon-day Walks he shall attend,
And all my Midnight Hours defend.

II.

When in the sultry Glebe I faint,
Or on the thirsty Mountain pant;
To fertile Vales and dewy Meads,
My weary wand'ring Steps he leads;
Where peaceful Rivers, soft and slow,
Amid the verdant Landskip flow.

III.

Tho' in the Paths of Death I tread,
With gloomy Horrors overspread,
My stedfast Heart shall fear no ill,
For thou, O Lord, art with me still;
Thy friendly Crook shall give me Aid,
And guide me thro' the dreadful Shade.

IV.

Tho' in a bare and rugged Way,
Thro' devious lonely Wilds I stray,
Thy Bounty shall my Pains beguile:
The barren Wilderness shall smile,
With sudden Greens & herbage crown'd,
And Stream