ry moment he could spare from attendance on his sick
parent after his return from his daily work, patching up many a rent in
the cottage produced by weather and time.

Peter, indeed, did his very utmost to support his mother, by working
early and late--not a moment was he idle; but do all he could he often
was unable to gain enough to find food for her and for himself, though
he was content with a dry crust and a draught from the bright spring
which bubbled out of the hill-side. The little cottage and garden was
her own, left to her by her father, Simon Field, a hard-working man, who
by temperate habits and industry had been enabled to purchase the ground
and to build the cottage, though that, to be sure, was put up chiefly by
his own hands. Simon Field, however, was more than an industrious man,
he was a pious and enlightened Christian, and had brought up his
children in the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Mary, the youngest
daughter, had gone to service, and had obtained a situation in the house
of a lately married couple, of whom Simon had heard a good report, and
felt confident that she would be treated with Christian kindness and
consideration. One by one, Simon Field's wife and children were taken
from him, and when Mary's kind mistress also died, she returned home to
live with her father.

Just at that time Jack Gray, a fine, open-hearted and open-handed
sailor, came to the hamlet, where his widowed mother lived. He made
love to Mary Field, and won her heart, unhappily before she had
ascertained his principles and character. To her simple mind, ignorant
as she was of the world, he appeared all that she could desire. As he
attended church with her, and behaved with propriety and apparent
devotion, she supposed him to be religious, and before he went away to
rejoin his ship she promised, with her father's permission, to be his
wife on his return.

Soon afterwards Simon Field, who had for some time been ailing, followed
his wife and children to the grave, and Mary became the owner of the
little cottage with its acre of ground. Though she had many suitors,
she remained faithful to Jack Gray. Nearly three years had passed away
before he returned. She then fulfilled her promise and married him, but
before long she could not help confessing to herself that he had changed
for the worse. Instead of being the quiet, well-behaved young seaman he
had before appeared, he was noisy and boisterous, and more than on