“‘There, she’s comin’ to now, raise her up, Mis’ Macarty, till I give her a little of this to drink.  How do you feel now, poor thing?’

“‘Why, what is it all about?  How came I here?’ said Mrs. Way, wildly; then, as her memory returned to her, she clasped Angel’s little figure closely, and wept convulsively.

“‘Don’t take on so!’ and, ’Let her alone, I tell you, it will do her good!’ and, ‘Do you want the woman to git the hysterics?’ came indiscriminately from the females bending over her.  Then Mrs. Maloney bustled away to make her a reviving cup of tea, and little widow Macarty, with her soft voice and pleasant way, soothed the heart-broken woman.

“’Never you mind, ma’am, everybody has trouble of some kind.  Remember the children that’s left, and keep your strength to work for them.’

“‘You are good and kind,’ moaned the sufferer, ’but I’ve nothing to reward your services.’

“’Can’t I do a neighbor a kindness without their talking about pay?  Suppose I should fall sick myself, maybe I’d have to pay before hand to get a little help.  Your lookin’ better a ready.  Don’t make the tea too strong, Mrs. Maloney, to excite her, and I think a bit of dry toast would be just the thing to sort of tempt her appetite.’

“Mrs. Way sat up, and a Doctor, who had been sent for, dressed her wounds, and pronounced her case not dangerous.  ’You need not anticipate any great harm from the blow, madam,’ he said, ’but your general health needs recuperating.  Your mind acts on your body, and you must be kept free from excitement of any kind.’

“‘Free from excitement,’ she thought bitterly, after all was hushed in silence, and she lay weak and faint, watching the slumbers of the innocent children beside her.  ‘My God, pity me!’ ’What have I done to deserve this cruel fate?’ She thought of the long, miserable hours she had passed alone with her helpless darlings, listening for the unsteady footsteps of him who had vowed to protect her, and guard her from life’s ills.  And this was the end.  She wished she could die, but for the children, what would become of them?  ‘Free from excitement,’ indeed.  An unprotected woman, with two small children, and only one pair of hands to work with, and these disabled, and food and fire to get, and a roof to shelter them, to say nothing of warm comfortable clothing.’

“‘She got up too quick, and worried too much,’ said the Doctor, when he was called again a few weeks later.  ’I can do nothing for her.  Where’s that wretch of a husband?’

“‘In the workhouse,’ sobbed Mrs. Maloney.  ’What will become of the children when she’s dead?’

“’Have to send them to the Orphan Asylum, I suppose.  Dear me!  I never could see what poor people wanted with so many children, anyway,’ and the elegant Dr. Dash sauntered down the four flights of stairs, humming a fashionable opera, and speculating how much that beautiful Miss Osborne really possessed in her own right.