ul and
devoted companion through a long and toilsome life, and his able and
efficient helpmate in all his difficulties.

The chief object of this excellent man, in leaving his own country, was
not so much to escape the persecution that then awaited the ministers
of his sect, as to attempt the conversion of the native heathen. For
this pious and disinterested purpose, he abandoned home and kindred,
and all that was dear to him, and, at the age of twenty-seven, entered
that land of distant promise, to the evangelization of which he had
resolved to devote all the powers of his life, and the faculties of his
energetic mind. So abstemious and self-denying was he, that his mode of
life resembled that of a hermit; and, at the same time, so liberal was
he in relieving the wants of others--whether his own countrymen or the
red Indians--that, if his wife had not been a careful and clever
manager, they must often have been reduced to absolute want. There is
an anecdote recorded of him, so characteristic of the self-forgetting
spirit of the 'Great Apostle of the Indians,' that it ought not to be
omitted here, where we are endeavoring to give a faithful picture of
the manners and the principles of the Pilgrim Fathers, and their
immediate followers.

The society in England, under whose auspices he had emigrated, allowed
him a salary of L50 a year, a great portion of which, as well as of his
small private resources, was always dedicated to charitable purposes.
It was his custom, when he received his quarterly payment from the
treasurer of the colony, to give away a considerable part of it before
he reached his home, so that _Dame_ Elliot--as she was called--only
received a very small sum, inadequate to the necessary expenses of her
frugal housekeeping. The paymaster knew the good man's peculiarities,
and was aware of the domestic embarrassments that his too-liberal
bounty often occasioned. He therefore tied the money up in a
handkerchief with so many knots, that he was sure the pastor could
never untie them; and gave it to him, saying in jest, 'Now really,
reverend sir, you must this time give it all to your worthy spouse.'
Elliot smiled, and departed: but, before he reached his dwelling, he
remembered an afflicted family who stood in need of his assistance and
consolation; and, on going to visit them, he found them overwhelmed with
unexpected distress. He immediately attempted to open his handkerchief,
but all his efforts were unav