Dr.
Dwight, in eulogizing Abijah Weld, pastor at Attleborough, declared that
on a salary of two hundred and twenty dollars a year Mr. Weld brought up
eleven children, kept a hospitable house, and gave liberally in charity to
the poor. I fear if we were to ask some carnal-minded person, who knew not
the probity of Dr. Dwight, how Mr. Weld could possibly manage to accomplish
such wonderful results with so little money, that we should meet with
scepticism as to the correctness of the facts alleged. Such cases were,
however, too common to be doubted. My answer to the puzzling financial
question would be this: examine and study the story of the home life, the
work of _Mrs_. Weld, that unsalaried helper in clerical labor; therein
the secret lies.
In many cases, in spite of the never failing and never ceasing economy,
care, and assistance of the hard-working, thrifty wife, in spite of
tributes, tithes and windfalls--in country parishes especially--the
minister, unless he fortunately had some private wealth, felt it incumbent
upon him to follow some money-making vocation on week-days. Many were
farmers on week-days. Many took into their families young men who wished
to be taught, or fitted for college. Rev. Mr. Halleck in the course of his
useful and laborious life educated over three hundred young Puritans in his
own household. It is not recorded how Mrs.
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