"The mutual affection my wife and I entertained for each other, only increased our wretchedness. It was agony to see one who loved me, having to endure the privations and hardships to which our poverty subjected us. "By almost superhuman exertions, and by living half-starved, I managed at last to scrape together a sufficient sum to take me to America--where I hoped to be able to provide a home for my wife and child. "I had not the means to take them along with me, though I left enough to secure, what I thought, would be a permanent home for them until I should return. "My wife had a brother--an only relative--who lived in a lonely house among the hills. He and his wife kindly agreed to give my old woman a home, until I should either return, or send for her. "I will not weary you with the particulars of what I did in America-- more than to state that I went to the copper mines near Lake Superior; and that I was not there a year, before I was so fortunate as to find a rich vein of ore, which I sold to a mining company for 6,000 dollars. "I sent my wife a part of this money, along with the intelligence, that I would soon return for her. With the rest, I purchased a small farm in the southern part of the State of Ohio; and leaving a man in charge of it, I returned to Scotland for my family. "I got back in the middle of winter--in December. It was a very cold morning, when I arrived in sight of the hovel, that contained all I loved most dear on earth. It was Christmas Day; and, in order to have the pleasure of spending it along with my wife, I had walked all the night before. When I drew near the house, I noticed that the snow--that had been falling for two days--lay untrodden around the door! "I hurried up inside, when I saw, lying on the floor, and partly covered with rags, my wife and child. They were what men call--_dead_! "The appearance of the hut, and of the dead bodies, told me all. They had died of cold and hunger. "I afterwards learnt, that my brother-in-law had died some time before; and that his wife immediately afterwards had gone away from the hovel to join some of her own relatives, who lived near the border. "My poor wife had disposed of every thing that would sell for a penny; and had in vain endeavoured to find employment. The distance of the hut from any neighbour, had prevented her from receiving assistance in the last hours of her existence: for no one had been aware of the state of destitution to which she had been reduced. "During the severe storm preceding her decease, she had probably lingered too long in the hut to be able to escape from it; and had miserably perished, as in a prison. "Neither she, nor the child, could have been dead for any length of time. Their corpses were scarcely cold; and it was horrible for me to think, that I had been walking in the greatest haste throughout all that stormy night, and yet had arrived too late to rescue them!