But someha or other Tommy seems content to stop as he is, but if yo should iver give him a call, aw wodn’t advise yo to say owt abaat him bein made deacon, for th’ thowts on it seems to be like th’ black pudding he had at th’ burrin drinkin,—­varry heavy on his stummack, an’ all th’ gin an’ watter he’s been able to get has niver swilled it daan.

Hannah Maria’s getten wed agean; shoo wor as gooid as her word.—­shoo wed a local praicher; but as his labours didn’t seem to profit him mich, he left th’ connexion, an’ wi’ Hannah Maria’s bit o’ brass he bowt th’ valiation o’th ‘Purrin Pussycat’ public haase, an’ shoo tends th’ bar wi’ as mich red ribbon flyin raand her heead as ud mak reins for a six-horse team.  Tommy called once, but when he saw th’ picture frame ’at he’d taen soa mich pains wi’ for Jack’s funeral card hung up wi’ a ticket in it sayin ‘prime pop,’ he supt up his rum an’ walked sorrowfully aght, withaat payin for it, an’ he’s niver been seen thear sin.

One Amang th’ Rest.

I cannot say that the birth of Sally Green was heralded with many joyful anticipations.  Her father was one of those unfortunate men who have never had any trade taught to them, and his income, always small, was also very precarious.  One day you might find him distributing circulars, another, acting as porter; at times he got a stray job as gardener, and was always willing to undertake almost any thing by which to earn an honest penny.  His wife had for many years been a sickly woman, yet she was fruitful, as was proved by the six children who with laughter or tears, as the case might be, welcomed their father home.

“Old Tip,” as he was familiarly called both at home and abroad, was sitting opposite the fire, smoking an old clay pipe, when the news was brought that little Sally was born, and both mother and babe were doing well.  He answered simply, “Ho!” “An’ is that all tha has to say when tha’s getten another dowter, an’ one o’ th’ grandest childer aw think’ at wor iver born?”

“Well, what am aw to say?  It’s all reight, isn’t it?  Shoo’ll be one amang th’ rest.”

Although Tip appeared to treat the event with such indifference, yet his mind was ill at ease, for he well knew that his scanty means had barely sufficed to find food for those dependent upon him before time, and an additional mouth to provide for was by no means a thing to be desired.

There is an old saying, that God never sends a mouth without sending something to put in it, and that is very true, but it is just possible that the food sent to put in it is appropriated to some other mouth, that has already got above its share.  If this was not so, we should be spared the pain of reading the heartrending accounts that are so frequently brought under our notice of people being “starved to death.”

It is not my intention to detail all the little incidents connected with Sally’s early years; suffice it to say that she was dragged up somehow, along with her brothers and sisters, who as they got older and able to work and earn a wage sufficient to support themselves, left one by one to depend upon their own exertions, but never once giving a thought to the debt of gratitude they owed to those, who had laboured so long, and endured so many troubles for their sakes.