ready talent, great vivacity, and love of amusement continually led him
into mischief and caused him to be disliked by many of their neighbors.
It was in vain that the villages complained, in vain that his father
admonished and his mother wept; still the orchards were robbed, the
turkeys chased into the woods, and the logs of wood in the fireplaces
often burst into fragments by concealed powder. Time passed on, till he
reached the age of sixteen years, when, spurning the restraints of home,
the erring boy left his father's house and became a wanderer, no one
knew whither; but it was rumored that reaching a sea-port town he had
entered a merchant vessel bound upon a whaling voyage for three years.
During the last year of his stay at home his conduct had been very
rebellious, and his father almost looked upon him as given over to a
reprobate mind. After his departure, his father was seldom heard to
mention his name, but his friends observed that his hair fast grew
white, and upon his brow rested an expression of constant grief and
anxiety. He was a man that seldom spoke of his own troubles to any one,
but it was plain to be seen that his erring boy was never absent from
his thoughts, and there was a feeling and pathos in his voice when he
addressed his congregation, especially the younger portion of it, which
had never been noticed before. It was his custom upon the first sabbath
evening in each month to deliver an address to the youth of his flock
and it was noticed that his appeals had never been so earnest before, as
after the departure of his son; but he seldom, if ever, mentioned his
name, not even to his grief-stricken wife. Our pastor was not what could
be properly styled an old man, but it was thought that his grief, like a
canker-worm, sapped the fountains of life, his bodily health became
impaired, his vigor of mind departed, and, ere he had seen sixty years,
death removed him from earth, to a home of happiness in Heaven. The
widow was now bereft of both husband and child. She was comforted
concerning her departed husband, knowing that it was well with him; but
she sorrowed continually for her absent boy; and often, during the
lonely hours of night, as the moaning of the winds fell upon her ear,
she would start from her sleepless pillow and utter a prayer for her
poor boy who might even then be tossing on the restless ocean, or
perhaps wrecked upon a dangerous coast. She was a woman of good
education, and much po