anvil as it was; and he was willing to work longer and harder to pay the
schoolmaster for teaching his children to read. Josiah was now ten years
old; he had been a faithful boy; he had made nails ever since he could
hold a hammer; and it was for this that he desired the more to send him
to school. It had troubled him much all along that the boy was working
so long and so well at the anvil, without having any of his wages to pay
the schoolmaster for teaching him something that would make him rich in
his poverty when he came to be a man; and he had tried to make up this
to him in a little way, by reading to him easy verses from the
Testament, many of which he had learned by heart. Besides this, he had
bought a little picture-reading-book, since I was with them last, and
Josiah could master many easy words in it; for he had learned almost all
the letters. But he knew this was a slow way of getting on, although he
feared it was the best he could do for him. He knew not how he could
manage to spare him for the winter. He had no other boy; there was a
baby in the cradle only a fortnight old, which made him five children
under ten years of age, to be fed, warmed and clothed through the
winter months. Here he fell into a calculation of this kind--he could
now earn nine shillings, or about two dollars and twenty cents, a week.
His coal cost him three shillings a week, and his house-rent two;
leaving him but _four_ shillings a week for a family of seven persons to
live upon. Josiah's clothes were well nigh gone; they were indeed
ragged; there was nothing left to sew patches to; and all he had in the
world was on him, except a smock frock which he put on over them on the
Sabbath.

These considerations gave a thoughtful tone to the nailer's voice as
they came upon his mind, and a thoughtful air came over the family group
when he had finished, and they all looked straitly into the fire as much
as to say, "It cannot be done." So I began at the bacon to soften down