e necessity
which rested upon me. My widowed mother and her aged father were the
only relatives I knew. One was feeble, delicate, and unequal to active
exertion; the other was old and poor, being wholly dependent upon a
small salary for officiating as sexton of a neighbouring church. Yet in
spite of these circumstances they maintained me for several years in
comfort and decency, and gave me an excellent education.

"At an age when kites and marbles are so engrossing, I had an earnest
desire to relieve my mother and grandfather of a part of their care and
labour; and I obtained a situation, in which I was well treated and well
paid, and which I retained until the death of my excellent master. Then,
for a time, I felt bitterly the want of employment, and became
despondent; a state of mind which was fostered by constant association
with my desponding grandfather, who, having met with great
disappointment in life, encouraged me not, but was ever hinting at the
probability of my failing in every scheme for advancement.

"I have since thought his doubtings answered a good purpose; for nothing
so urged me on to efforts as the desire to prove the mistaken nature of
his gloomy predictions, and few things have given me more satisfaction
than the assurances I have received during the past few years that he
came at last to a full conviction that my prosperity was established,
and that one of his ill-fated family was destined to escape the trials
of poverty.

"My mother was a quiet, gentle woman, small in person, with great
simplicity, and some reserve of manner. She loved me like her own soul;
she taught me everything I know of goodness; there is no sacrifice I
would not have made for her happiness. I would have died to save her
life; but we shall never meet again in this world, and I--I--am learning
to be resigned.

"For these two, and one other, whom I shall speak of presently, I was
ready to go away, and strive, and suffer, and be patient. The
opportunity came and I embraced it. And soon one great object of my
ambition was won; I was able to earn a competency for myself and for
them. And I began to look forward to a day when my long looked-for
return should render our happiness complete. I little thought then that
the sad tidings of my grandfather's death were on their way, and the
news of my mother's slow but sure decline so soon to follow. But they
are both gone; and I should now be so solitary as almost to long to
follow