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 wisdom, she told him, was
of more value than gold. She grieved not that his face was imbrowned,
or his hands hardened by labour: toil is man's natural inheritance,
and he is bid to rejoice in his "labour, for it is the gift of God;"
but she rejoiced in the maturing of his heart, and saw that the good
seed she was sowing was taking root.

She had, however, one trouble concerning him, and not being able to
discern clearly what was her duty, it gave her more anxiety than even
her poverty. His love for sketching could not be repressed. She saw
that he shared his father's talent largely, but remembering what her
husband's views in reference to the cultivation of the noble art of
painting had been, the struggle between maternal pride and the natural
yearnings of a mother's heart to gratify a darling and worthy child,
in opposition to what seeming duty demanded, can scarcely be imagined.
Her late husband's opinions, tempered as they always were by judgment
and prudence, had acquired a character of sacredness in her view; but
when William, in showing her his sums, showed also the rude but
spirited sketches he had drawn on the border of his slate, she saw
that the gift was from God, and she could not condemn, although she
dared not praise. She was afraid of entailing misery on him by