ur parish, who had the
kindness to let me share the instructions of his children, and still
further advanced my education, and still more increased my natural
predilection for religious information. By the time I was thirteen, I
became quite a prodigy in Christian learning, and was often sent for to
the parsonage, to astonish the great people of the neighbourhood, by the
facility with which I answered the most puzzling questions that were put
to me, respecting the great mysteries of Christianity."

CHAPTER THIRTY.

"It was about this time that I first became acquainted with an orphan
boy, an inmate of the workhouse, who had been left to the care of the
parish, by the sudden death of his parents, a German clockmaker and his
wife, from a malignant fever which had visited the neighbourhood, and
taken off a considerable portion of the labouring population. I had
been sent on errands from my father to the master of the workhouse, a
severe, sullen man, of whom I had a great dread, and I noticed this
child, in consequence of his pale and melancholy countenance, and
apparently miserable condition. I observed that no one took any notice
of him; and that he was allowed to wander about the great straggling
workhouse, among the insane, the idiotic, and the imbecile, without the
slightest attention being paid to his going and coming; in short, he
lived the wretched life of a workhouse boy.

"I see that you are eager to ask what is a workhouse boy," said my
mother, "so I will anticipate your question. There is, in the various
parishes of the country to which we both belong, a building expressly
set apart for the accommodation and support of the destitute and
disabled poor. It usually contains inmates of all ages, from the infant
just born to the very aged, whose infirmities show them to be on the
verge of the grave. They are all known to be in a state of helpless
poverty, and quite unable to earn a subsistence for themselves. In this
building they are clothed and fed; the younger provided with instruction
necessary to put them in the way of earning a livelihood; the elders of
the community enjoying the consolations of religion, accorded to them by
the regular visits of the chaplain."

"I suppose," I here observed, "that the people who lived there were
deeply impressed with their good fortune in finding such an asylum?"

"As far as I could ever ascertain," Mrs Reichardt replied, "it was
exactly the reverse. It was alw