senseless, idiotic, disgusting creature. She almost prays it may be so, as she hands her the glass which she angrily calls for, for there is yet a greater evil to be dreaded. The liquor so long untasted, acting upon her naturally high temper, may arouse within her a wild tempest of passion; in her frenzy she may fall upon those little ones, beat, bruise, maim, murder them perhaps. It is not the first time their lives have been endangered by her violence. To get them from the room without exciting her opposition, so quietly and naturally that it shall hardly attract her observation, is her first care; hence, under pretence of arranging the window curtain, she says to Charley, who is standing near it: 'Charley, say you want some cakes--a drink of water--anything that's down stairs, and follow me out of this room.' 'I can't go, Maggie,' returned the child, in the same cautious whisper, glancing toward his mother with his large dark eyes wildly dilated, and his small face bleached with fright. 'Harry won't go, and I can't leave Harry.' 'Harry shall go,' energetically repeated the resolute Maggie, putting her head out of the window to say her say. 'He is not going to stay here to be mauled! Harry,' she continued, in the most insinuating tone imaginable, 'come down stairs with Maggie. There's a darling.' He was leaning out of the window, apparently looking at something in the street below, and did not move as she addressed him. 'Harry, Harry,' she called again, in an excited whisper, 'do you hear me? quick, child, quick!' He turned toward her his face covered with tears. 'Don't cry, for heaven's sake, child; don't cry _here_,' returned Maggie, with a suppressed groan, 'or that mother of yours will pounce upon you in spite of me.'