A few months after I had established the Mothers’ Society, one of the women brought a message from her husband, expressing his great wish to see me. I promised to call in the course of the week, and the next afternoon I found my way to a little low dwelling, which was pointed out to me as the residence I was seeking. It consisted of only two rooms—one in front, where the family seemed to live during the day, while that behind served as a bed-room. Three or four children were playing on the floor; the mother was busy at her washing-tub; and near the fire sat the husband, who, I saw, from his leather apron and the boot he held in his hand, was a shoemaker. The reception here was very different from the one previously described. When the wife announced me, the man rose from his seat; and, as his height exceeded six feet, his head scarcely cleared the ceiling. His fine figure, the form of his head, and the expression of his countenance, conveyed the idea that, had the man been born in a different position, he might have risen to be Lord Chancellor. After the usual greeting, he said (still standing)— “Madam, I have wanted to see you for some time past, to thank you for what you have begun to do for us. You have thought of what we want done for us more than anything, and I hope, madam, you will go on with it; and God will bless you for this work, and so shall many of us; for we often think we might do better, if somebody would take the trouble to put us in the way of it.” I told him that I was quite rewarded for any trouble which I was taking, by the pleasant friends I made. When I was living in the country, I had always been accustomed to a large number of poor friends; and since coming to London, I had missed them very much. I told him of a book society that my brother and I had established in the village near our house. Twelve men, like himself, (I believe, four out of the twelve were shoemakers,) each brought a book, and on the first day of the month each man passed on his book to the member next on the list; and thus all had the benefit of reading twelve books at the cost of one. We had quarterly meetings with these men, to converse about the books; I repeated to him some of the observations they used to make, and I saw my listener was much amused. “Ah!” said he, “I lived in the country, too, before I came here; but there was nothing of that sort going on there. I wish there had; it would have kept me out of a deal of mischief. I have blessed God that ever I came to this place; for though it is poor and dirty enough, I have met the best friends here that I ever knew.” He then gave me a long and interesting account of his previous life; how he had early imbibed infidel principles from some of his companions, and had gone on for years rather wishing them to be true than actually believing them to be so.