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150  BILLY AND JENNY.

was 'most gone, and Billy is one of the honestest negurs in the world ; for he had rather freeze to death than steal a rail from the fence." This circumstance is recorded as one specimen of their honest simplicity.

16. In the spring of 1815, they were removed to the habitation of one of their sons, where they were boarded ; and there they remained, until death, the destroyer of all earthly comforts, put a period to Jenny's life, after a few days' severe illness, about the seventy-eighth year of her age.

17. The same affectionate attachment that pervaded her mind in youth and in health, remained unshaken to the last. Her sight, as before remarked, being almost gone, when lying on her bed, she frequently inquired for Billy; but when she was told he was lying behind her, or sitting by her, she was satisfied.

18. Thus she closed a long and laborious life, beloved and respected for her many good qualities, and her consistent conduct. Billy died at Scarsdale, Westchester county, New York, on the 4th of 3d month, 1826, after a few days' illness, aged about eighty-seven years, and was decently interred by the side of Jenny, on the 6th of the same month.

GEORGE HARDY.    151

GEORGE HARDY.

Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.--Acts x. 34, 35.

DURING the winter of 1832, the writer of the narrative of which this account is an abridgment, became acquainted with Hannah Hardy, an interesting old colored woman, and her son George. They were the suffering tenants of a miserable garret, lighted by a few panes of glass, and ill-secured from the inclemencies of the weather.

2. Hannah had been an industrious woman, who supported herself comfortably for many years, until her sight, which had long been declining so nearly left her, as to disqualify her for all kinds of work. George, who was her youngest son, disclosed in his earliest years great quickness of discernment and readiness of apprehension. He could read the Bible when only four years old; and he continued to be remarkable for docility, and for preferring his books and other profitable employments to the idle sports of children.

3. When about eleven years old, he was placed from home, where he remained until four years since, when he became so much diseased with scrofula as to make it necessary for him to return