may possibly have seen the "Wild Indian," surrounded by fairies, robbers, etc., in front of the shows at fairs, dancing a hornpipe in fetters. I have expostulated with my poor friends upon the subject. I believe this man to be a strictly honest person. He returns to London for a day or two from his peddling tours in the surrounding counties about once in three weeks. The business is extremely bad, but he has always managed to pay his poor old mother's rent, and leave her

loaf of bread and one or two other necessaries when he goes away; and Mrs. T. would say, "I likes to keep a roof for him, and to see his face when he comes to London, if I am half-starved, so that he may not have to go to any of them low lodging-houses and bad places; for I'm his mother, you know, though he is sixty years old." I must not dilate upon this case, but will just mention one circumstance, to show the altered condition of my poor old friend, who I have a very good hope of meeting in a better world.*

* I think it right to state that Mrs. T. was a woman of remarkably independent spirit; such expressions as these might mean little upon some persons' lips, but they meant a great deal (those who knew her would consider, I think) upon hers.

Said she, "I sees the benefit of praying now, Mr. Vandikum, and may the Lord Almighty bless you for coming to teach a poor old sinner, and I knows," she said, "my prayers is answered. You may believe me or believe me not, but the other day I was hungry and starving, I hadn't a bit of fire in the place, and I didn't expect my son home for weeks; but as I sat at the door, very faint and low, I says, 'Oh! God Jesus Christ, I wish you would send my son home to his poor old mother,' and I kept on saying that ere it seemed so strong on me, and as I'm a living sinner," (said Mrs. T., formerly she never would own she was a sinner,) "I looks up, and I'm blest but if there wasn't Jim a-coming up the court. So he throws down his pack, and, says he, So I've come home, mother.' 'Yes,' says I, 'so I see.' Says he, 'I shouldn't, but I've been thinking very much about you, but,' says he, 'I'm very hungry, so let's have some victuals as quick as you can.""-Then followed an exact account of what my friend Jim sent out for, down to half an ounce of bacca-" And we sat down to a nice cup of tea and a good fire," said Mrs. T., "and wasn't I thankful to the Almighty, for it was His doings, and Jim said the same."

This was all Jim could do, to pay his mother's rent, and when he came to town, leave her perhaps the value of eighteenpence; and a beggar woman who lives close by, I have often found washing her out, as she expressed it, "a few bits of things because the poor old crittur couldn't," and giving her a bit of bread sometimes, and a few tea leaves she had collected now and then. Jim would have supported his mother like a lady, I believe, but he had not the means.

Had a person entered Mrs. T.'s little dark cell in B alley, where a person could not fully extend his arms a la semaphore, they would have seen in the corner a little pallet, which they might have mistaken for a stump bedstead, and as a bit of cotton over it looked tolerably clean, they might have said, as I once did, to Mrs. T., "I'm glad to see you lay pretty comfortable." It was winter time, very keen, and she looked at me with surprise, and after musing for a while, said, "Well, you shall see; but," added she, "I don't make no complaint." On lifting up the piece of cotton and an old gown, I saw a little straw was laid on an old shutter, and I think a few bricks supported this at each end. "My bones," said she, "I'm so thin, gets very sore a-laying in

winter, with scarcely any food, often none." The wonder is she was not perished; as it was, there can be no question but that the distressing ́asthma from which she laboured was much increased for want of food, as such invalids require warmth internally and externally. The gnawings of hunger she relieved by “a smoke of tobacco." I should have felt very happy to support Mrs. T., but surrounded constantly by a mass of sick persons daily, whose complaints, by the admission of the parish doctor, as often required food as medicine, and by hundreds of persons in extreme destitution in addition, I could not do so.

For several years previous to her decease it was an immense toil to Mrs. T. to attend my meetings for prayer and exposition, although she lived close by. She walked a step and stopped, her breath being very bad, and when she entered she frequently was obliged to be led to her seat, gasping for breath very painfully. "But," said she, "if I can crawl I like to come, for it's an hour's happiness to me, a little heaven." should suppose few persons who heard the impressive manner in which she would utter this, coupled with her remarkable appearance, would

I

soon forget it. Those who are at pains to attend worship are not likely to find the Lord invites to an empty entertainment. Being a woman of exceedingly strong mind, although totally uneducated, unable even to read a syllable, (which she deeply lamented, saying, "Oh! if I could read my Bible!") I could add many other very interesting sayings of Mrs. T.'s to this brief narrative, which I am sure would very much interest the pious reader, but must conclude her case. At last came that time in the history of Mrs. T. which must come in the history of all, "a time to die :".

"Oh! death! great conqueror, to thee
Must all mankind submit,

Until a mightier conqueror comes,

To crush thee 'neath his feet."

This time comes to most in the morning of life, and to fewest in old age-an affecting thought. Mrs. T., as her end drew near, appeared to wish to have me constantly with her. That, however, could not be; but the strong manner in which I hung upon her memory may be aptly illustrated by a little incident that occurred shortly previous to her death.