Page:The Leadbeater Papers (1862) Vol 1.djvu/44

that good woman, who always strove to be relieved of pain of body or mind as speedily as possible, sate with heroic resolution while he went home and sharpened his vile instrument to complete the operation.

The abode of Peter Widdows adjoined the forge. He was by trade a tailor, and by religion a Quaker, though he had been disowned for marrying his maid servant, who was not a member of the Society. He had several children. Age and infirmity had overtaken him; and when bed-ridden he kept a little school, sometimes calling his son Joseph off his tailor's board. to correct untoward pupils. The last days of the old man were favoured with peace. He once proposed to apprentice his son Joseph to Richard Shackleton to fit him to be a schoolmaster; and, being asked why he did not teach him his own trade, replied that his son had not capacity for it. The son did not, however, coincide in his father's choice; for, after running away (the knight-errantry of schoolboys), and mistaking Kilcullen for Dublin, "because the Liffey ran through it," he settled down to the trade of his father, at whose death he became master of the cottage. Having a prospect of a comfortable livelihood, he obtained the hand of Abigail Pope, a young woman of high spirit, who had been upper servant with the Pims of Tullalost, and therefore regarded herself as allied "to some of the top families."

The ancient mansion of the Strettels commanded, from the casement windows in an upper room, a view of the street, though further from it than most of the