"Friends! Ma'am," cried the poor woman; "oh! You don't know, ma'am; look, ma'am, at yon empty cupboard; there ought to be meat and drink there, ma'am, and earned by honest labour. It is not an hour, ma'am, since I was up at `The Firs,' taking back some work as my poor Sally did for the young ladies (she's a beautiful sewer, is our Sally, there's none to match her in all Hopeworth), and I'd a fortnight's charing as I was owed for. I'd left the little ones with a kind neighbour, so I went up to the house and asked to see the missus: she couldn't see me, but I begged hard; and they showed me up into the drawing-room. Mrs Rothwell was lying on a `sofy,' and there was wine on a table close by, and the young ladies was all crowding round the fire, contradicting their mother, and quarrelling with one another. `Oh! For goodness' sake don't interrupt us,' says one of the young ladies, and their mamma bids me sit down; and there I sat for a long time, till Miss Jane had finished a fairy tale; something about a young lady as was shut up in a castle to be eaten by a giant; and how a young gentleman fell in love with her, and got a fairy to turn her into a bird, and get her out of the castle: and they all cried over the story as if their hearts would break, and when it was over they all had some wine; and Mrs Rothwell, who had been crying very much too, asked me what I wanted. So I told her as I'd come to my last penny, and I should be very thankful if she'd be so good as to pay me for my work, and for what our Sally had been doing for the young ladies. Then she fired up at once, and told me she thought it very impertinent in me coming and teasing her in that way, as she meant to pay me as soon as it was convenient; and oh! Ma'am! Then she asked me what I wanted for Sally's work; and when I told her, she said I charged too much, though I didn't ask above half as they'd ask for it in Hopeworth; and then she nearly cut my heart in two by saying (Oh, ma'am! I can't scarce bear to repeat it), that I shouldn't have come to pester her if it hadn't been for my idle vagabond of a son (them was the very words she used, ma'am), as had run away and left his place. Oh, Mrs Franklin! You're a mother; you know how I must feel for my poor wanderer, for he's my own flesh and blood still. I dursn't speak; I couldn't stay; and I've come back penniless as I went: but the Lord has sent you to help me, and I'll never doubt Him again." "Never do," said her visitor; "I'll find you and Sally work for the present, and try and think charitably of Mrs Rothwell; she may mean more kindly than she has spoken."