The mother looked upon her child with a tender expression, but did not reply.  She thought how poor and comfortless that home was which seemed so desirable.

“I don’t like to go to Mrs. Walker’s,” said the child, after the lapse of a few moments.

“Why not, Jane?”

“Because I can’t do any thing right there.  Amy scolds me if I touch a thing, and John won’t let me go any place, except into the kitchen.  I’m sure I like home a great deal better, and I wish you would always stay at home, mother.”

“I would never go out, Jane, if I could help it,” the mother replied, in the effort to make her daughter understand, that she might acquiesce in the necessity.  “But you know that we must eat, and have clothes to wear, and pay for the house we live in.  I could not get the money to do all this, if I did not go out to work in other people’s houses, and then we would be hungry, and cold, and not have any home to come to.”

The little girl sighed and remained silent for a few moments.  Then she said, in a more cheerful tone,

“I know it’s wrong for me to talk as I do, mother, and I’ll try not to complain any more.  It’s a great deal harder for you than it is for me to go into these big people’s houses.  You have to work so hard, and I have only to sit still in the kitchen.  But won’t father come home soon?  He’s been away so long!  When he was home we had every thing we wanted, and you didn’t have to go out a working.”

Tears came into the mother’s eyes, and her feelings were so moved, that she could not venture to reply.

“Won’t he be home soon, mother?” pursued the child.

“I’m afraid not,” the mother at length said, in as calm a voice as she could assume.

“Why not, mother?  He’s been gone a long time.”

“I cannot tell you, my child.  But I don’t expect him home soon.”

“Oh, I wish he would come,” the child responded, earnestly.  “If he was only home, you would not have to go out to work any more.”

The mother thought that she heard the movement of some one near the door, and leant her head in a listening attitude.  But all was silent without, save the occasional sound of footsteps as some one hurried by.

To give the incidents and characters that we have introduced their true interest, we must go back some twelve years, and bring the history of at least one of the individuals down from that time.

A young lady and one of more mature age sat near a window, conversing earnestly, about the period to which we have reference.

“I would make it an insuperable objection,” the elder of the two said, in a decided tone.

“But surely there can be no harm in his drinking a glass of wine or brandy now and then.  Where is the moral wrong?”

“Do you wish to be a drunkard’s wife?”

“No, I would rather be dead.”

“Then beware how you become the wife of any man who indulges in even moderate drinking.  No man can do so without being in danger.  The vilest drunkard that goes staggering past your door, will tell you that once he dreamed not of the danger that lurked in the cup; that, before he suspected evil, a desire too strong for his weak resistance was formed.”