I'm but a poor boy, sir, low and
humble; but they say there's a greater Being than the greatest in this
world, that listens to the just prayers of the poor and friendless. I
was never happy, sir, since we left it--neither was any of us; and when
we'd sit cowld and hungry, about our hearth, We used to be talking of
the pleasant days we spent in it, till the tears would be smothered in
curses against him that put us out of it. Oh, sir, if you could know
all that a poor and honest family suffers, when they are thrown into
distress by want of feeling in their landlords, or by the dishonesty of
agents, you would consider my father's case. I'm his favorite son, sir,
and good right have I to speak for him. If you could know the sorrow,
the misery, the drooping down of the spirits, that lies upon the
countenances and the hearts of such people, you wouldn't, as a man and a
Christian, think it below you to spread happiness and contentment among
them again. In the morning they rise to a day of hardship, no matter
how bright and cheerful it may be to others--nor is there any hope of a
brighter day for them: and at night they go to their hard beds to strive
to sleep away their hunger in spite of cowld and want. If you could see
how the father of a family, after striving to bear up, sinks down at
last; if you could see the look he gives at the childhre that he would
lay down his heart's blood for, when they sit naked and hungry about
him; and the mother, too, wid her kind word and sorrowful smile, proud
of them in all their destitution, but her heart breaking silent! All the
time, her face wasting away.
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