aa THE HISTORY OF

and living with a woman who was entirely with-
out the fear of God, yet my heavenly Father so
ordered things, that 1 was, for a long time, pre-
served from temptation. My business lay but
little in Ludlow. I had full employment at
home, and few persons came to our house, un-
Jess it might be Charlotte Owen, who some-
times brought with her a young man, the son of °
a neighbour, with whom she was so indiscreet,
sometimes, as to walk in the fields and lanes
about the town.

But I had little to say to Charlotte when she
came. She was not fond of me; and I have
since thought, that I had it not enough at
heart to try to win her to God. Whenever
she was with my mistress on a Suuday evening,
I used to shut myself up in my little room, if
I was not wanted below.

I had now lived with Mrs. Bennet more than
two years and a half, and was looking forward
with hope to the time when I should leave her
service and enter into that of some person who
feared God, when, one evening, towards the
fatter end of last April, my mistress having
been in Ludlow the whole day, I was alone in
the cottage ironing some linen, I remember
that, as it was becoming dusk, many very
serious thoughts passed through my mind. [
considered how many persons whom I had
known and loved during my short life had
passed from a temporal to an eternal state ;
and I considered how soon, even in the com-
mon course of nature, I also should be num«
bered among those who are departed.