1.    IT was Saturday night, and the widow of the Pine Cottage sat by her
blazing fagots, with her five tattered children at her side, endeavoring by
listening to the artlessness of their prattle to dissipate the heavy gloom
that pressed upon her mind. For a year, her own feeble hand had
provided for her helpless family, for she had no supporter: she thought of
no friend in all the wide, unfriendly world around.

2.    But that mysterious Providence, the wisdom of whose ways is
above human comprehension, had visited her with wasting sickness, and
her little means had become exhausted. It was now, too, midwinter, and
the snow lay heavy and deep through all the surrounding forests, while
storms still seemed gathering in the heavens, and the driving wind roared
amid the neighboring pines, and rocked her puny mansion.

3.    The last herring smoked upon the coals before her; it was the only
article of food she possessed, and no wonder her forlorn, desolate state
brought up in her lone bosom all the anxieties of a mother when she
looked upon her children: and no wonder, forlorn as she was, if she
suffered the heart swellings of despair to rise, even though she knew that
He, whose promise is to the widow and to the orphan, can not forget his
word.

4.    Providence had many years before taken from her her eldest son, who
went from his forest home to try his fortune on the high seas, since which
she had heard no tidings of him; and in her latter time had, by the hand of
death, deprived her of the companion and staff of her earthly pilgrimage,
in the person of her husband. Yet to this hour she had upborne; she had
not only been able to provide for her little flock, but had never lost an
opportunity of ministering to the wants of the miserable and destitute.

5.    The indolent may well bear with poverty while the ability to gain
sustenance remains. The individual who has but his own wants to
supply may suffer with fortitude the winter of want; his affections are
not wounded, his heart is not wrung. The most desolate in populous
cities may hope, for charity has not quite closed her hand and heart, and
shut her eyes on misery.

6.    But the industrious mother of helpless and depending children, far
from the reach of human charity, has none of these to console her. And
such a one was the widow of

the Pine Cottage; but as she bent over the fire, and took up the last scanty
remnant of food to spread before her children, her spirits seemed to
brighten up, as by some sudden and mysterious impulse, and Cowper's
beautiful lines came uncalled across her mind:

 Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, 
 But trust him for his grace;
 Behind a frowning Providence
 He hides a smiling face.

8.    The traveler drew near the board, but when he saw the scanty fare, he
raised his eyes toward heaven with astonishment: “And is this all your
store?" said he; “and a share of this do you offer to one you know not?
then never saw I charity before! But, madam," said he, continuing, “do
you not wrong your children by giving a part of your last, mouthful to a
stranger?”

9.    “Ah," said the poor widow  and the tear drops gushed into her eyes
as she said it   "I have a boy, a darling son, Somewhere on the face of the
wide world, unless Heaven has taken him away, and I only act toward
you as I would that others should act toward him. God, who sent manna
from heaven, can provide for us as he did for Israel; and how should I this
night offend him, if my son should be a wanderer, destitute as you, and he
should have provided

for him a home, even poor as this, were I to turn you unrelieved away!"

10.    The widow ended, and the stranger, springing from his seat, clasped
her in his arms. "God indeed has provided your son a home, and has
given him wealth to reward the goodness of his benefactress: my mother!
oh, my mother!" It was her long lost son, returned to her bosom from the
Indies. He had chosen that disguise that he might the more completely
surprise his family; and never was surprise more perfect, or followed by a
sweeter cup of joy.
 

DEFINITIONS.   1. Fag'ots, bundles of sticks used for fuel. Prattle, trifling talk. Dis'si pate, to scatter. 2. Pu'ny, small and weak. 4. Pil grim age, a journey. 5. Suste nance,, that which supports life. Forti tude, resolute endurance. 7. In differ ent, neither very good nor very bad. Com pli cation, entanglement. Sympathies, compassion. Proffered, offered to give. 9. Manna, food miraculously provided by God for the Israelites.