Ordination, though I am just now struggling for
life. This 8 pounds you may depend on the next week, or the
week after.

S. Wesley.

9. From the same to the same.

Gainsborough, Sept. 7th, 1725.

Dear Son John,--With much ado, you see I am for once as good as
my word. Carry Dr. Morley's note to the bursar. I hope to send
you more, and, I believe, by the same hand. God fit you for
your great work. Fast--watch--pray--endure--be happy; towards
which you shall never want the ardent prayers of your
affectionate father,

S. Wesley.

On Sunday, September 19th, 1725, John Wesley, being twenty-two years
old, was ordained deacon by Dr. John Potter, Bishop of Oxford, in
Christ Church Cathedral.

CHAPTER V.

Of the letters received from home by him during the struggle to raise
money for his Ordination fees, the above are but extracts. Let us go
back to the month of May, and to Kelstein.

"Patty dear," asked Hetty one morning, "have you heard lately of John
Romley?"

She was sitting up in bed with a letter in her hand. It had come
yesterday; and Patty, brushing her hair before the glass, guessed
from whom. She did not answer.

"He is at Lincoln; he has gone to try for the precentorship of the
cathedral," Hetty announced.

"You know perfectly well that we do not correspond. I have too much
principle."

"I know, dear," sighed Hetty, with her eyes fixed meditatively upon
her sister's somewhat angular back. "I hope he is none the worse for
it: for I have my reasons for wishing to think of him as a good man."
Patty paused with brush in air, her eyes on Hetty's image in the
glass; but Hetty went on inconsequently: "But surely you get word of
him, now and then, in those letters from home which you hide from me?
Patty, I am a stronger woman than you: and you may think yourself
lucky I haven't put you through the door before this, laid violent
hands on the whole budget, and read them through at my leisure.
You invite it, too, by locking them up; which against a determined
person would avail nothing and is therefore merely an insult, my
dear."

"You know perfectly well why I do not show you my letters. They are
all crying out for news of you--mother, and Emmy and Molly: even poor
honest Nan breaks off writing about John Lambert and when the