cause as much pleasure as surprise. The father arose and welcomed me
with the heartfelt expressions of good-will. Little Josiah, the hero of
my story, came forward timidly with a sunny token of recognition
brightening up his black, sharp eyes. The mother, a tidy, interesting
looking woman in a clean, white cap, added her welcome; and I sat down
with them, with Josiah standing between my knees, and told them my
story--how some children in America had interested themselves in their
boy--how they had thought of him on their way to school, and talked of
him on their way home, and in the parlor, and the kitchen and the
cottage;--how they had contributed their pennies, which they had saved
or earned, to send Josiah to school to learn to read the Testament; and
how I had come to bring them, and to ask if the boy could be spared from
the anvil. I glanced around upon the group of children, whose eager eyes
indicated that they partially comprehended my errand, and then at a
couple of sides of bacon suspended over my head. The nailer's eyes
followed my own, and as they reciprocally rested on the bacon, he
commenced his reply from that end of the subject. He said it was true
that many were worse off than he, and many were the comforts he had,
that thousands of the poor knew nothing of. Here he glanced
affectionately at his children; but my eyes brought him back to the
bacon, and so he went on, apparently under a new impression of his
resources of comfort. He said he had to sell some of his goods to buy
the pig when very small, and had "_luggled_" along with some difficulty
to feed and fatten him into a respectable size. Yes, he was a pretty
clever pig; nor was that all--the nailing business had become better,
by a half-penny a thousand, than when I was with them in the summer;
and Josiah could now earn ninepence a day. He wanted to send all his
children to school; if they could not read, they would be poor, even if
they should come to own parks and carriages, he could not bear to see
them growing up with no books in their hands. He worked long at the