In her great distress, as Mrs. Meeker often afterward declared, she resolved to ‘call upon the Lord.’  She prayed that the child she was soon to give birth to might be a boy, and become a joy and consolation to his mother.  She read over solicitously all the passages, of Scripture she could find, which she thought might be applicable to her case.  As the event approached, she exhibited still greater faith and enthusiasm.  She declared she had consecrated her child to God, and felt a holy confidence that the offering was accepted.  Do not suppose from this, she intended to devote him to the ministry. That required a special call, and it did not appear such a call had been revealed to her.  But she prayed earnestly that he might be chosen and favored of the Most High; that he might stand before kings; that he might not be slothful in business; but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.  The happy frame of mind Mrs. Meeker had attained, at length became the subject of conversation in the neighborhood.  The clergyman was greatly interested.  He even made allusion to it in the weekly prayer-meeting, which, by the by, rather scandalized some of the unmarried ladies present.

Mr. Meeker took all this in good part.  The truth is, he regarded it as a very innocent whim, which required to be indulged in his wife’s delicate situation; so he always joined in her hopeful anticipations, and endeavored to sympathize with them.  It was under these auspicious circumstances that Hiram Meeker first saw the light.  All his mother’s prayers seemed to have been answered.  The boy, from the earliest manifestation of intelligence, exhibited traits which could belong only to her.  As he advanced into childhood, these became more and more apparent.  He had none of the openness of disposition which was possessed by the other children.  He gave much less trouble about the house than they ever did, and was more easily managed than they had been at his age.  It must not be inferred that because he was his mother’s favorite, he received any special indulgence, or was not subject to every proper discipline.  Indeed, the discipline was more severe, the moral teachings more unremitting, the practical lessons more frequent than with any of the rest.  But there could not exist a more tractable child than Hiram.  He was apparently made for special training, he took to it so readily, as if appreciating results and anxious to arrive at them.  When he was six years old, it was astonishing what a number of Bible-verses and Sunday-school hymns he had committed to memory, and how much the child knew.  He was especially familiar with the uses of money.  He knew the value of a dollar, and what could be purchased with it.  So of half a dollar, a quarter, ten cents, and five cents.  He had already established for himself a little savings bank, in which were placed the small sums which were occasionally presented to him.  He could tell the cost of each of his playthings