Watch Work Wait

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Watch--Work--Wait

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Title: Watch--Work--Wait Or, The Orphan's Victory
Author: Sarah A. Myers
Release Date: July 27, 2005 [EBook #16367]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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WATCH--WORK--WAIT ***

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[Illustration: WILLIAM AT HIS MOTHER'S GRAVE.
Taking a piece of paper and a pencil from his pocket, he drew a sketch

of the little square where his loved ones slept.]

WATCH-WORK-WAIT;
or,
THE ORPHAN'S VICTORY.
by SARAH A. MYERS.
"Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.... They that seek the Lord
shall not want any good thing."--PSALM xxxiv.
London:
T. Nelson and Sons, Paternoster Row; Edinburgh; and New York.
MDCCCLXII.

This little volume contains a simple record of the trials and temptations
which a poor orphan boy passed through a few years since. It teaches
that best of lessons,--the need of Divine help in the battle of life. It
shows that a child may attain a beautiful character amid great trials and
great evils.
The author assures us that the incidents in this delightful story are real
occurrences. Some of them are "stranger than fiction;" yet they are not
fancies, but facts.
CHAPTER I.
WILLIAM'S FIRST GRIEF.
In one of the many beautiful spots which the traveller sees in making a
voyage up the Hudson, stands the village of M----. It attracts the notice
of all tourists, for it seems to occupy the very place in which a painter

or a lover of the picturesque would have chosen to place it. Its
inhabitants love to boast of its antiquity, for it was founded by the
original Dutch settlers, and its present settlers are mostly their
descendants.
At the time of which we write, no city fashions had found their way to
that remote spot. Its inhabitants were simple-hearted, pious, and
contented to live as their forefathers had done; and the place seemed
like a quiet little world within itself. None of the gross vices always to
be found in large communities were practised there. On the
Sabbath-day, when its only bell sent its voice distinctly over the valley,
the humble dwellers met in the single church, not only bound together
by the tie of human brotherhood, but by the sweeter ties of Christian
charity, to hear the word of God and perform the work of prayer and
praise.
Just at the end of the long street in this quiet village stood a cottage,
which, although very rudely built, attracted the attention of the
passers-by from the extreme neatness and order, those sure attendants
of the pious poor, which reigned around it. In winter it looked snug
beneath its coating of snow; in summer very beautiful, glistening, as it
then did, in all its fragrant adornment of jessamine, honeysuckle, and
sweet-brier.
But if its exterior was attractive, the family life within was much more
so. True piety and grace were found beneath that modest roof, most
truly illustrating the truth, that the high and lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy place,
dwelleth with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.
For many years this cottage had been occupied by a watchmaker, a
German, who left his own country in early manhood, and came to the
United States to find the wealth which foreigners used to believe could
be gained here at once. This he never acquired, but he found something
better; for although in an out-of-the-way place he could not expect to
grow rich by his trade, he found a great treasure in his pious wife, and
enjoyed more of pure and real happiness than often falls to the lot of
man. His mind was originally one of strength, and he had turned his

meditations and prayers heavenward, and the promised peace was
vouchsafed.
He did not love his trade as well as he might have done; for having a
very remarkable talent for painting and sketching, which the beautiful
surroundings were well calculated to foster, he often found his business
of watchmaking irksome. Although frugal, industrious, and possessing
much skill as a seal engraver, in which art he received employment
from New York, he never was able to lay up anything, although he
could and did provide comfortably for his household.
His neighbours entertained for him a deep respect. He