"My good woman," said Dowling, "you must be very cold, indeed, in this
condition."

"Sir," she answered, "I am cold; but I am also starving of hunger.
Could you afford me one cent to get some bread?"

"God bliss ye, dear friend," he said, "I have not been able to taste
food for three days myself; but I am now on the way to the house of a
good friend, a good servant of the Lord; and if I get any help, I will
share it with you. I am a poor tinker, but work has been very slack
this last week. I have not earned enough to pay for my lodging."

The diary gives all the details, the corner of the street where he met
her, the hour of the day.

A servant ushered him into the parlour of his "good friend, the
servant of the Lord." Presently the reverend doctor came down,
somewhat irritated, and, without shaking hands, said:

"Dowling, I know I have asked you several times to call, but I am a
very busy man and you should have let me know. I simply cannot see you
this morning. I have an address to prepare for the opening of a
mission and I haven't the time."

"No handshake--no Christian greeting," records the tinker's diary; and
the account closes with these words: "Dear Lord, do not let the demon
of uncharitableness enter into my poor heart."

He became a colporteur for a tract society, and was given as territory
the towns on the east side of the Hudson River. Tract selling in this