surprise at her attempting to read, she said, ‘Then why should not _you_ teach me? so he taught me whenever he came in from work, and now I can read a chapter any where in the bible.’ In this case, if the Bible Society did not excite the desire, it was ready to furnish the means of gratifying it, to the great and lasting blessing apparently of the individual in question. “Another very old woman spoke in such terms of her testament, as to make me feel most thankful she had ever had it. She reads it constantly, to her old infirm husband, and says, ‘I know it is all I have to attend to, for I am getting very forward in age.’ I expressed a hope that she knew to whom to look for safety in the hour of death; she burst into tears at the name of the Saviour, and earnestly expressed her sole dependence upon him, saying, she found herself full of sins and infirmities, but that his redemption was sufficient. She showed me a friend’s tract sent her several years ago by a lady, and said it had done her as much good as any thing (saving her bible) that she had in the house; also a little hand-bill, dropped in the road by some ladies, it was entitled, ‘Do you ever pray?’ and she said she had read it over and over, and it always reminded her of her duty. I cannot precisely repeat her conversation, but it made me strongly feel the truth of that text: ‘Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.’ In the road I met a very infirm and afflicted old woman, the survivor of a husband and, I think, of six children, living on two shillings per week. I asked her whether she had a bible. ‘Ah, I paid in for one several years ago, and it is the greatest comfort I have had.’ I afterwards saw her in her own abode, a wretched hovel, with a chimney in the middle, where she lives with her old and most wretched mother-in-law. She showed me, with pride, her precious bible, for which she had paid 7_s._ 10_d._, and said, ‘I spared the money when I wanted it for bread many a time, but I have never grudged it, it is all the comfort I have, and much more comfort than victuals to me.’ I believe, also, the effects of it may be seen in her forbearance and attention to her afflicted companion. Having completed my round, I took my list to the collector, who gladly received it, and will enter with fresh spirit on her increased task.”