It impressed me with
something of the awe which comes to us in thinking of the great
Power which keeps the mechanism of the universe in motion. Even
now, the remembrance of its large, mysterious movement, in which
every little motion of every noisy little wheel was involved,
brings back to me a verse from one of my favorite hymns:--
"Our lives through various scenes are drawn,
And vexed by trifling cares,
While Thine eternal thought moves on
Thy undisturbed affairs."
There were compensations for being shut in to daily toil so
early. The mill itself had its lessons for us. But it was not,
and could not be, the right sort of life for a child, and we were
happy in the knowledge that, at the longest, our employment was
only to be temporary.
When I took my next three months at the grammar school, every-
thing there was changed, and I too was changed. The teachers were
kind, and thorough in their instruction; and my mind seemed to
have been ploughed up during that year of work, so that knowledge
took root in it easily.
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