Year: 1867

was In the habit of visiting a de-
cent widow, as paralysis made it i'm
possible for her to attend church. She
was tended by very dutiful daughter,
who, working at a fax-milI in the neigh
borhood, toiled hard, and contented
herself with simple fare that she might
help maintain her mother Before
leaving the cottage for her work, she
was in the habit of heaping up the re-
fuse Of the mill in the CRATE and kind
ling it. She placed her helpless moth
er in a chair right before the fire, and
as this fuel burned slowly away, the
old woman was kept comfortably till
her return.


1t happened one day that / left my
manse, and skirting the walls of the
old churchyard, and passing the corn
mill, with its busy sound and flashing
wheel, l took my way down the wind
ing dell to the cottage of the old wo-
man, which stood in its garden, en-
powered among trees. But, having
met parishoner with whom had some
subject of interest to talk about, | call
ed halt, and sitting down on a bank
of thyme, we entered into conversa-
ton. Ere the subject was half ex-
hausted, the widow rose to my recol-
lection. ] felt, somehow, that | must
cut it short and hasten away on my
visit. But the idea was dismissed, and
the conversation went on. However,
it occurred again and again, till with a
feeling / was nsgleCting call of duty,
as by an uncomfortable impulse l rose
to my feet, and made haste to the cot
tage. Opening the door, a sight met
my eye that for a moment nailed me
to the spot.


The erection of mill-refuse which had
been built from the earth some feet up
the open, wide chimney, having its
foundations eaten away, had fallen, and
precipitating itself forward, surround
ed the helpless paralytiC within circle
of fire. The accident took place some
minutes before | entered. She had
cried out but no ear was there to hear,
nor hand to help. Catching the loose
refuse about her, on and on, nearer and
nearer, the flames crept. 1t was a ter
rible sight for the two Wigtown women
martyrs, staked far ont on the sands
of Solway Firth, to mark the sea-foam
crawl nearer and nearer to them it was
more terrible still for this lone woman,
in her lone cottage, without any great
cause to die for, to sit there and see the
fire creeping closer, drawing nearer and
nearer to her feet. BY the time had
entered, it had almost reached her,
where she sat motionless, speechless,
pale as death, looking down on the fire
as it was about to seize her clothes and
burn her to a cinder. Ere it caught, I
had time, and no more, to make one
bound from the door to the hearthstone,
and seizing her, chair and all, in my
arms, to pluck her from the jaws of a
cruel fiery death.


BY what law of nature, when l lin
gered on the road, was l moved with
out the remotest idea of danger, TO cut
short, against all my inclinations, an in
teresting conversation, and hurry on to
the house, which | reached just in the
nick of time? One or two minutes
later, the flames had caught her clothes,
and l had found her in blaze of fire.
Be it mine to live and die in the belief
of a present and presiding, as well as a
personal God in the faith which in
spired my aged friend to thank him for
her wonderful deliverance, and the boy
to explain his calm courage on the roar
ing deep, in these simple but grand
words "My Father is at the helm4"-
DR.. Guthrie ...