At length, after some further talk, the poor woman opened the door, and called, “Robert, Robert!” He answered, and bid her stay a few moments and he would come:  so he ran down the common stairs to his boat, and fetched up a sack in which was the provisions he had brought from the ships; and when he returned he hallooed again; then he went to the great stone which he showed me, and emptied the sack, and laid all out, everything by themselves, and then retired; and his wife came with a little boy to fetch them away; and he called, and said, such a captain had sent such a thing, and such a captain such a thing, and at the end adds, “God has sent it all:  give thanks to him.”  When the poor woman had taken up all, she was so weak she could not carry it at once in, though the weight was not much, neither:  so she left the biscuit, which was in a little bag, and left a little boy to watch it till she came again.

“Well, but,” says I to him, “did you leave her the four shillings too, which you said was your week’s pay?”

“Yes, yes,” says he; “you shall hear her own it.”  So he called again, “Rachel, Rachel!” which it seems was her name, “did you take up the money?”—­“Yes,” said she.  “How much was it?” said he.  “Four shillings and a groat,” said she.  “Well, well,” says he, “the Lord keep you all;” and so he turned to go away.

As I could not refrain from contributing tears to this man’s story, so neither could I refrain my charity for his assistance; so I called him.  “Hark thee, friend,” said I, “come hither, for I believe thou art in health, that I may venture thee:”  so I pulled out my hand, which was in my pocket before.  “Here,” says I, “go and call thy Rachel once more, and give her a little more comfort from me.  God will never forsake a family that trusts in him as thou dost.”  So I gave him four other shillings, and bid him go lay them on the stone, and call his wife.

I have not words to express the poor man’s thankfulness; neither could he express it himself but by tears running down his face.  He called his wife, and told her God had moved the heart of a stranger, upon hearing their condition, to give them all that money; and a great deal more such as that he said to her.  The woman, too, made signs of the like thankfulness, as well to Heaven as to me, and joyfully picked it up; and I parted with no money all that year that I thought better bestowed.

I then asked the poor man if the distemper had not reached to Greenwich.  He said it had not till about a fortnight before; but that then he feared it had, but that it was only at that end of the town which lay south towards Deptford[171] Bridge; that he went only to a butcher’s shop and a grocer’s, where he generally bought such things as they sent him for, but was very careful.