the heart's-ease. 63 



when — at midnight — he has gone to the dying 

 poor, in the cellars of St. Giles', with such supplies 

 as he could collect; and fed them, and prayed 

 with them, and smoothed down their wretched 

 couches of straw and rags. Unable to meet the 

 demands on his bounty, he nearly starved himself, 

 to hoard up every possible supply for his famish- 

 ing nurslings. The last time that he visited me, I 

 inquired concerning a poor Irish family for whom I 

 was interested. 



1 They are all in the fever,' replied D, ' one sweet 

 little boy lying dead ; the father will follow next.' . 



• But if all are ill, who nurses them ?' 



1 Don't be uneasy ; the Lord careth for the poor. 

 By his grace I nurse them when I can. Last 

 night I took a supply of arrow-root, and fed them 

 all round ; not one was able to lift a spoon — parents 

 and children helpless alike.' 



I trembled, well knowing the extreme peril to 

 which he must be exposed ; but he turned the 

 discourse to the evident opening of the father's 

 mind, and the happy confidence which he felt con- 

 cerning the dead child : expatiating on the glories 

 of heaven, as one whose heart was already there. 

 Twenty-one days afterwards the three survivors 

 of that family, so tenderly nursed, crawled out to 

 see their benefactor buried. He had closed the 

 eyes of the father, who departed, rejoicing in the 

 full assurance of that hope which D. had first set 



