ickly woman, or we should always have
done tolerably well. There are no gentry in the parish, so that she
has not met with any great assistance in her sickness. The good
curate of the parish, who lives in that pretty parsonage in the
valley, is very willing, but not very able to assist us on these
trying occasions, for he has little enough for himself, and a large
family into the bargain. Yet he does what he can, and more than many
other men do, and more than he can well afford. Besides that, his
prayers and good advice we are always sure of, and we are truly
thankful for that, for a man must give, you know, sir, according to
what he hath, and not according to what he hath not."

"I am afraid," said Mr. Johnson, "that your difficulties may
sometimes lead you to repine."

"No, sir," replied the shepherd, "it pleases God to give me two ways
of bearing up under them. I pray that they may be either removed or
sanctified to me. Besides, if my road be right, I am contented,
though it be rough and uneven. I do not so much stagger at hardships
in the right way, as I dread a false security, and a hollow peace,
while I may be walking in a more smooth, but less safe way. Besides,
sir, I strengthen my faith by recollecting what the best men have
suffered, and my hope, with the view of the shortness of all
suffering. It is a good hint, sir, of the vanity of all earthly
possessions, that though the whole Land of Promise was his, yet the
first bit of ground which Abraham, the father of the faithful, got
possession of, in the land of Canaan, was a _grave_."

"Are you in any distress at present?" said Mr. Johnson. "No, sir,
thank God," replied the shepherd, "I get my shilling a-day, and most
of my children will soon be able to earn something; for we have only
three under five years old." "Only!" said the gentleman, "that is a
heavy burden." "Not at all; God fits the back to it. Though my wife
is not able to do any out-of-door work, yet she breeds up our
children to such habits of industry, that our little maids, before
they are six years old, can first get a half-penny, and then a penny
a day by knitting. The boys, who are too little to do hard work, get
a trifle by keeping the birds off the corn; for this the farmers
will give them a penny or two pence, and now and then a bit of
bread and cheese into the bargain. When the season of crow-keeping
is over, then they glean or pick stones; any thing is better than
idleness, sir, and if