Mary, his favourite "Polly" who survived him, have preserved for us
in still vivid characters the details of the early training of
William Carey. He was the eldest of five children. He was the
special care of their grandmother, a woman of a delicate nature and
devout habits, who closed her sad widowhood in the weaver-son's
cottage. Encompassed by such a living influence the grandson spent
his first six years. Already the child unconsciously showed the
eager thirst for knowledge, and perseverance in attaining his
object, which made him chiefly what he became. His mother would
often be awoke in the night by the pleasant lisping of a voice
"casting accompts; so intent was he from childhood in the pursuit of
knowledge. Whatever he began he finished; difficulties never seemed
to discourage his mind." On removal to the ancestral schoolhouse
the boy had a room to himself. His sister describes it as full of
insects stuck in every corner that he might observe their progress.
His many birds he entrusted to her care when he was from home. In
this picture we see the exact foreshadowing of the man. "Though I
often used to kill his birds by kindness, yet when he saw my grief
for it he always indulged me with the pleasure of serving them
again; and often took me over the dirtiest roads to get at a plant
or an insect. He never walked out, I think, when quite a boy,
without observation on the hedges as he passed; and when he took up
a plant of any kind he always observed it with care. Though I was
but a child I well remember his pursuits. He always seemed in
earnest in his recreations as well as in school. He was generally
one of the most active in all the amusements and recreations that
boys in general pursue. He was always beloved by the boys about his
own age." To climb a certain tree was the object of their ambition;
he fell often in the attempt, but did not rest till he had
succeeded. His Uncle Peter was a gardener in the same village, and