And wilt thou sink beneath an affliction which happens alike to them that have their portion here below and to them that lay up treasure in heaven ? Faint not , for thy burden is yet light . '' `` It is heavy ! It is heavier than I can bear ! '' exclaimed Pearson , with the impatience of a variable spirit . `` From my youth upward I have been a man marked out for wrath , and year by year -- yea , day after day -- I have endured sorrows such as others know not in their lifetime . And now I speak not of the love that has been turned to hatred , the honor to ignominy , the ease and plentifulness of all things to danger , want and nakedness . All this I could have borne and counted myself blessed . But when my heart was desolate with many losses , I fixed it upon the child of a stranger , and he became dearer to me than all my buried ones ; and now he too must die as if my love were poison . Verily , I am an accursed man , and I will lay me down in the dust and lift up my head no more . '' `` Thou sinnest , brother , but it is not for me to rebuke thee , for I also have had my hours of darkness wherein I have murmured against the cross , '' said the old Quaker . He continued , perhaps in the hope of distracting his companion 's thoughts from his own sorrows : `` Even of late was the light obscured within me , when the men of blood had banished me on pain of death and the constables led me onward from village to village toward the wilderness . A strong and cruel hand was wielding the knotted cords ; they sunk deep into the flesh , and thou mightst have tracked every reel and totter of my footsteps by the blood that followed . As we went on -- '' `` Have I not borne all this , and have I murmured ? '' interrupted Pearson , impatiently . `` Nay , friend , but hear me , '' continued the other . `` As we journeyed on night darkened on our path , so that no man could see the rage of the persecutors or the constancy of my endurance , though Heaven forbid that I should glory therein . The lights began to glimmer in the cottage windows , and I could discern the inmates as they gathered in comfort and security , every man with his wife and children by their own evening hearth . At length we came to a tract of fertile land . In the dim light the forest was not visible around it , and , behold , there was a straw-thatched dwelling which bore the very aspect of my home far over the wild ocean -- far in our own England .
Then came bitter thoughts XXXXX me -- yea , remembrances that were like death to my soul .
At after against for in into of that upon within