Pounds made efforts to clothe and feed as well as educate his destitute pupils, many of whom were in a deplorable condition of rags and dirt. He was anxious to take them with him on Sundays to the meeting-house which he attended, and would have them decently clad and properly washed. "In one corner of his room was a bag full of all sorts of garments for girls and boys, which he had begged and mended, to be worn by his scholars on Sundays, and when they went with him to the house of God. The garments took the place of worse ones; for John took pride in the decent, clean appearance of his pupils. Imagine him on a Sunday morning, with his children round him, and his big bag open, and his handing the garments round, with the soul of kindness in his eyes and the joy of God in his heart!"[57] He might often have been seen on Saturday nights going round to the bakehouses to buy bread for his poor children to eat on Sundays, gathering it into his huge leathern apron, and, when his money was all spent, standing still with a troubled look, searching in all his pockets for a few more coppers in order to secure yet one more loaf to add to his store. [57] Rev. T. Timmins, Portsmouth, in a letter to the writer. When he was in need of books for his pupils, he did not hesitate to go to the houses of well-to-do citizens and explain his case, and ask them for aid. For the most part, he met with much kindness and sympathy, for many of the inhabitants of Portsmouth and the neighboring towns knew the benevolent cobbler of St. Mary's Street. But now and then he met with rebuffs from those who did not know him, or from churlish souls who could not feel for the sufferings of the poor. If he alone had suffered from these rebuffs, the brave and sensible old man would have borne them calmly enough; but a word spoken against his helpless little scholars was enough at any time to rouse his warmest feelings. Once he called on a gentleman of considerable means to ask the favor of a few old disused books for the use of the pupils in reading. "Let them _buy_ books!" was the only response he got to his generous appeal. "Poor little beggars!" he exclaimed; "they can scarcely get bread, let alone books," and turned away with ill-concealed disgust from the _gentleman's_ presence.