"I will try, dear boy. The fact is--and I am under no promise of secrecy in the matter; for while Amos is not one to sound a trumpet before him to proclaim his good deeds, he has no wish to hide them, as though he were half-ashamed of them--the fact is that Amos wishes to save every penny just now, in order to be perfectly free to carry out anything he may see it right to undertake in this scheme of his for bringing back your dear mother once more amongst us. Every farthing spent on himself he grudges, and he would not for the world draw on your father; so he has not only sold his pony, but has also given up taking butter at meals, having made me promise, as I am housekeeper and hold the purse, to give him in money the worth of the butter he would eat, that he may put it to this special fund for his cherished scheme. And I have gladly consented to his wish. It is but a small matter, and he knows it, but it is through small things that great good is brought about. As Martin Tupper says, `Trifles light as air are levers in the building up of character.' This self-denial on the part of dear Amos brings out and heightens the nobility of his character; and when the occasion for such self-denial shall have passed away, it will leave him far advanced on the upward and heavenward road." "He's a brick, every inch of him," said Walter, in a voice half-choked with tears; "and much more than a brick too--he's a great square block of marble, or Scotch granite, as fine a one as ever Freemason tapped with a trowel--there. And now, auntie, for the historical examples." "My first," said Miss Huntingdon, "is that of a very remarkable man-- John Wesley, the father of the Methodists. An order having been made by the House of Lords in his day for the commissioners of excise to write to all persons whom they might have reason to suspect of having plate without having paid the duty on it, the accountant-general for household plate sent to Mr Wesley a copy of the order, with a letter stating that hitherto he had neglected to make entry of his plate, and demanding that he should do it immediately. Mr Wesley replied:--`Sir, I have two silver tea-spoons at London, and two at Bristol. This is all the plate I have at present; and I shall not buy any more while so many around me want bread.--Your obedient servant, John Wesley.'