RECOLLECTIONS

OF

My Second Son,

SAMUEL CEPHAS WINKS,

BORN MAY 29, 1828,

DIED FEBRUARY 14, 1841.

"AND children with their little hands,

Twine fast about our souls."

WATTS.

My second son was always my darling boy; not that I made a pet of him, or that I did not love all his other seven brothers and sisters as much as he, but some how or other, I had a peculiar kind of affection for that lad. I cannot tell why, but I had. He was my second son, and I was the second son of my father. Another thing when he was a baby he was very feeble, and we had much trouble in rearing him. I remember one night, he had been poorly all

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the day; I went, after supper, and looked at him in his cradle-"why," said I, “my dear; this child is dying!" He had all the acute symptoms of coming death-his nose nipped up, his mouth open, his eyes fixed, and his breathing hard-very hard. We called in several neighbours, and they too thought him dying. I hastened to the doctor, who said he could do nothing. I came away with a heavy heart. I was miserable! I called on my way home at the house of another neighbour, who advised bleeding him with leeches. Almost despairing, we applied two on the back of his left hand, and then immersed him in a bath of very warm water. This relieved him, and the next morning we found him quite better. This, to me, was like receiving him again from the dead. I felt thankful, but I think that I was too anxious, and made myself too miserable about his being taken away. I was not so prepared to be resigned to the will of God as I ought to have been.

I mention this little incident of his illness when a baby, to account if I can for that peculiar affection and sympathy, which I always felt for my dear Sam.

He continued a feeble little fellow. But we nursed him well, and in the spring gave him new milk and a new-laid egg every morning early. This did him great good. Let us feel for those poor parents who cannot get such

nourishing things for their sickly and feeble

children.

Another little incident which took place when he was about six years old, I would just mention. He had the misfortune to have two of his teeth growing out at the top. His Mother had often asked me to take him to the dentist to have them removed. One afternoon, he had left school early, and seeing him at play I thought of it, and putting on my hat, I said, "Sam get your cap, and go with me.' "Where are you going father?" "O you'll see.” I said. As he went along, his hand in mine, trotting beside me, still he kept asking, "Father, where are you going to take me? where are we going?" I could scarcely subdue my feelings, and would willingly have gone back, knowing the pain he must endure, and the severe trial it would be to me, and yet I must do my duty, and chiefly for his sake. But he, poor little fellow, thought I was going to buy something for him, and was glad to go. The dentist had just returned from the funeral of his own child, and was unwilling to do anything. I asked him just to look at his teeth. He took him on his knee, and putting his hand behind for an instrument, had one out in a moment, and whilst the child was screaming with his mouth open, he drew the other, I now took him in my arms and walking to the other end of the room with him said, "He shall not have any more.' I carried him home, and a sad tale he had to tell

his brothers Joseph and John, and his little sister Charlotte, while he showed them his wounded gums and the two teeth. His Mother, and her sister, who had been out, were very glad when they came home and found it all over. One

night's rest in bed, made all right again, except a little lisping. Sam never forgot the door of the dentist, and I never read of Abraham and Isaac, but I think of his asking “ Father, where are we going?"

He grew up and went to school, and amused himself like other boys. He was not a very good reader, owing to his want of breath. His writing was fair, and his proficiency in arithmetic, and french, and latin, also fair, but not extraordinary, except the french, which he pronounced remarkably well. But his chief delight was to get by himself alone, and with his pocket knife, and bits of wood, and pasteboard, and paper, and paints, and wires, and strings, make all manner of curious little nicknacks, boats, houses, railroads, automatons, and I know not what, which he would give to his little brothers and sisters, to whom he was very kind. Indeed this was one of his most amiable features. With the utmost patience and kindness, he would attend to their little wants, and try to pacify them when naughty or ill-tempered. When about eleven, he engaged to teach a class of little boys in the Sabbath-school, which he managed in his usual quiet and patient

manner. He was so still and orderly in his movements, that the teachers said he was more like an old man than a young boy.

On a Sabbath morning or evening before public worship, it was our custom, seated in a circle, to read the Holy Scriptures, which I would explain, and then ask questions. Sam was always ready to reply, and could tell me all about Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph, (who was the favourite) Moses, Samuel, David, and others, as well as of the life and sufferings and death, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes, to amuse them, I would tell them of my boyish days, and what I saw, and where I went, and what I did. This always excited much interest, and often my dear lad would say, quietly seating himself in a position of fixed attention, "Come father, tell us about your young age."

I never allow my children to run about on the Sabbath-day. I do not object to their taking a quiet peaceable walk sometimes for a short distance by themselves; but I do not allow them to go out in company with other children on the Lord's day. Though I think it right to be so strict on the Sabbath-day, I love to see them playful and happy on the week-day. Sam was never at a loss for amusement. He would play by himself alone for hours together. Poor little fellow! his last amusement was, erecting in the garden, houses, and castles, and walls, and