s
effort, although the service rendered be but trifling. A kind-hearted
farmer, hearing of the little boy's exertions to aid his mother,
employed him to wait on his reapers during harvest; and as the time of
fruit-gathering and hop-picking in the autumn furnished plenty of such
work as he was able to do, all his time was, as one might say, filled
up. And when he brought home the hard-earned money, the fruit of his
toils, and marked the lighting of his mother's eye as he poured his
little treasures into her lap, child as he was, he felt there was a
sweetness in the gains of labour which no gifts can bestow; and
William and his mother were not the only ones to remark that bread
earned by honest toil is sweeter than any other.

There was another, besides the farmer, whose heart turned warmly
toward the fatherless boy. Old Nicholas Herman, the baker, was too
truly benevolent to forget his late tenant, and although not a rich
man, he had often something to send to the widow. He had learned the
beautiful precept: "Give bread to the hungry, and from the needy turn
not away;" and was a true believer in Him who said, "Inasmuch as ye do
it unto the least of these, ye do it unto me."

Kept busy and from home throughout the day, the mother waited
anxiously for the twilight hour, for then William would return, and
great was the joy of her heart when, with bounding step and cheerful
face, he entered the house. The night might be dark and stormy, but
his presence always made her sun-light; and the tempest might beat
upon her lowly dwelling, threatening its destruction, yet she heeded
it not, for her earthly treasure was beside her. Although much
enfeebled by grief, she spent no idle moments, but sewed, knit, or
spun. William, child as he was, did not fail to note the faded look,
and exerted himself not only to assist her in her household duties,
but learned to knit; for he thought no occupation, however feminine,
disparaging to his boyhood, if by it he could only lessen her labours.

These hours were spent with double profit, for she taught him while
she worked, and light from her window was seen to glimmer long after
most of the dwellers in her neighbourhood had gone to rest. She taught
him the ordinary branches of school learning, which she well
understood; but she was much more careful to impress upon his mind the
more important precepts of the gospel, that only true chart by which,
man can steer through life safely, and which w