" Sometimes she would steal off to the cottage of a pious
old churchwoman of the name of Halifax, who lived at a short distance
from her father's house; and listened with delight, while the good old
lady read to her out of the Psalms, and talked about heavenly things.
On one of these occasions she was so deeply affected by a sense of her
sinfulness and accountability, that pointing to the cat which lay by
the fireside, she exclaimed, "I wish I was that cat;" and when asked
why, replied, "Because it has not a soul to save." The old lady
gently rebuked the foolish thought, and, shewing her its wickedness,
endeavoured to lead her to Him, who said, "Suffer the little children
to come unto me." Not long after she began to meet in her father's
class, and received her first ticket at the hands of the Rev. Francis
Wrigley, at that time Superintendent of the York circuit. By weekly
intercourse with the people of God, her aspirations after divine
sources of happiness gradually strengthened until she was twelve years
old, when they assumed a more definite form; although, in consequence
of her tender age, her views of evangelical truth were necessarily
crude and defective; for she still "spake as a child, understood as a
child, _reasoned_ as a child," It was during a few days' visit to her
aunt Elizabeth, who now resided in the suburbs of York, having married
Mr. J. Hawkins of that city shortly after her father's death, that she
became so unhappy on account of her sinful and miserable condition,
that she could not refrain from much weeping.
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