Page:Maria, or, The wanderer reclaim'd.pdf/19

Rh during which time I was obliged frequently, in rain or ſnow, froſt or cold, to appear in the ſtreets; at length, diſeaſed and diſtreft, my maſter turned me out with my child! and pinched with hunger and diſtemper, I commenced beggar! Reflection then began powerfully to do its work, and heaven and earth ſeemed ſhut up; every avenue of relief or compaſſion ſeemed cloſed againſt a wretched ſinner, ſinking beneath a load of horror and guilt upon her head; againſt a moſt wretched mother, with an helpleſs innocent babe, about to perish with hunger!

As near four years had paſſed ſince I left my father’s houſe, and my attempts had proved fruitleſs to reconcile myſelf, in better days; I dared not, I could not even admit the thought of going thither; in this my ſtate of beggary, nakedneſs and diſeaſe, I doubted whither I ſhould be known; I did not doubt that I ſhould be rejected, it known, with indignation. My diſtreſs was at its height; though indeed the fierce demands of hunger, especially of my child’s hunger, almoſt suspended every other sensation. It was in this sad ſituation, it was in these doleful circumſtances that the gentleman saw me, to whom I owe, under God, life, salvation, all things.— If I might be allowed, with what joy would I mention: it I were able, with what gratitude would I write his name in letters of gold! How compaſſionately