have spoken out distinctly, and destroyed the little resting place I sometimes sought when wearied to faintness.  Mary, may God who has afflicted me, grant you a happier lot in the future!  May you never know the anguish of one who sees a once idolized husband become a brute—­her children growing up worthless under the dreadful example of their father, and all often wanting food to sustain nature!  You have everything you desire.  I have not the necessaries of life.  We were born of the same mother, and nursed at the same bosom.  We played together in childhood,—­once I saved your life.  And now, because our ways are different; yours even and flowery, and mine rough and thorny, you turn from me, as from an importunate beggar.  Mary, we shall meet our father and mother at the bar of God!”

Thus saying, Mrs. Haller turned slowly away, and left the house before her sister, who was startled at this unexpected appeal, could sufficiently collect her senses to reply.  Her real errand, or, rather, her principal errand to the house of Mrs. Williams, had been to ask for some food for her children.  It was many weeks since her husband had contributed a single dollar towards the daily family expenses, and all the burden of their support devolved upon the wife and mother.  Night and day, in pain, and exhaustion of body and mind, had she toiled to get food for those who looked up to her, but all her efforts were inadequate.  Like thousands of others, when a girl, she had acquired an education that was more ornamental than useful.  The consequence was, that she had no ready means of earning money.  The wants of a family of children, had, it is true, given her some skill with her needle, but not of a kind that would enable her to earn much by sewing.

She did, however, at first try what she could do by working for the cheap clothing-stores.  But twelve-and-a-half cents a pair for pantaloons, ten cents for vests, and eight cents for shirts, yielded so little, that she was driven to something else.  That something else was the washtub; over which, and the ironing-table, she toiled early and late, often ready to sink to the floor from exhaustion.

Of this, she said nothing to Mrs. Williams, who would have been terribly mortified at the idea of her sister, taking in washing for a support.  The labour of one pair of hands in the wash-tub, was, however, unequal to the task of providing food for seven mouths, even of a very poor quality.  Consequently, Mrs. Haller found the wants of her family pressing, every day, harder and harder upon the slender means by which they were supplied.  Often, when she carried home her work, there was no food in the house, and often did she work half the night, so as to be able to take her clothes home early on the next day, and get the money she had earned to meet that day’s wants.