A CHARITABLE ACT. 21 
came unbearable. Incited by a burning indig- 
nation he resolved to escape, and stealing to 
Mattie’s room one night, told his intention. 
The child lovers had little time to indulge their 
grief—one burst of tears—one clasped embrace, 
and they parted. Mattie’s only consolation, the 
last words of her lover, that “when he was a 
great man, he would come back and make her 
his little wife.” 
With a few crusts and some scraps of cloth- 
ing, Will set forth on his journey to the Ameri- 
can capital. Curious vicissitudes awaited him. 
His scanty store was soon exhausted, and he was 
compelled to beg his bread, and seek some 
wretched: shed for shelter at night. 
On one of these occasions it was that he was 
discovered by the excellent Judge Campbell, 
who, an early riser for the charitable purpose of 
looking to the welfare of his cattle, as well as of 
his household, on visiting his stables, was amazed 
to find there a pale, miserable looking boy, 
emaciated with deprivation and hunger. The 
good old man could not refrain his tears, as he 
exclaimed, ** Never while I have a crust mast 
this be.” Removed to the Judge’s dwelling, for 
days the poor orphan vacillated between life and 
death, unable to explain his unhapy situation, 
or express his gratitude to his deliverers. From 
the time that Will Smith was received into the 
