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 twelve years of age. Till that time, by spinning and other work, she had been enabled to maintain herself and her child; and to pay a trifle for his education. Since that trying dispensation of Providence, confined to her bed, and deprived of the use of her limbs, she had been unable to do any thing for herself; and had no money to pay another Her son, at that early age, trusting to the Divine blessing, took the noble resolution, by the labour of his own hands, to supply the wants of his afflicted parent. A female neighbour sometimes called in to do little kind services for her; but her chief comfort, and her support, arose from the affection and unceasing attention of her son. He procured such work as his years would admit, in the Osnaburg manufactory at Dundee. Every morning, after cleaning the room in which they dwelt, getting ready their breakfast, and making his mother as comfortable as he could till his return, he left her, with a smiling countenance, to attend the labours of the loom; and returned in the evening with his well-earned pittance, to enjoy a cheerful meal with his beloved parent. And thus had they lived, for the space of five years.

But this is not all: the mother could not read; the son, by her kindness, had obtained that advantage. He had read the Holy Scriptures; and he knew the truth as it is in Jesus. In the midst of poverty and distress, he had found great riches; and he experienced that the ways of religion are "ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace!" Reflecting, therefore, on the many hours he was under the necessity of leaving his mother, alone and unemployed; and desirous that she also should share in the blessings which he enjoyed from his religious knowledge; he resolved to teach her to read; and, in due time,