llings
the enormous sum of L7 10s.? I believe it is the most profitable
five shillings Mrs. Sponge ever laid out." "O no, madam," said the
girl, "that good gentlewoman does the same kindness to ten or twelve
other poor friendless creatures like me." "Does she so?" said the
lady; "then I never heard of a more lucrative trade than this woman
carries on, under the mask of charity, at the expense of her poor
deluded fellow-creatures."

"But, madam," said Betty, who did not comprehend this lady's
arithmetic, "what can I do? I now contrive to pick up a morsel of
bread without begging or stealing. Mrs. Sponge has been very good to
me; and I don't see how I can help myself."

"I will tell you," said the lady; "if you will follow my advice, you
may not only maintain yourself honestly but independently. Only
oblige yourself to live hard for a little time, till you have saved
five shillings out of your own earnings. Give up that expensive
supper at night, drink only one pint of porter, and no gin at all.
As soon as you have scraped together the five shillings, carry it
back to your false friend; and if you are industrious, you will, at
the end of the year, have saved L7 10s. If you can make a shift to
live now, when you have this heavy interest to pay, judge how things
will mend when your capital becomes your own. You will put some
clothes on your back; and, by leaving the use of spirits, and the
company in which you drink them, your health, your morals, and your
condition will mend."

The lady did not talk thus to save her money. She would willingly
have given the girl the five shillings; but she thought it was
beginning at the wrong end. She wanted to try her. Beside, she knew
there was more pleasure, as well as honor, in possessing five
shillings of one's own saving, than of another's giving. Betty
promised to obey. She owned she had got no good by the company or
the liquor at Mrs. Sponge's. She promised that very night to begin
saving the expense of the supper; and that she would not taste a
drop of gin till she had the five shillings beforehand. The lady,
who knew the power of good habits, was contented with this,
thinking, that if the girl could abstain for a certain time, it
would become easy to her. She therefore, at present, said little
about the _sin_ of drinking, and only insisted on the _expense_ of
it.

In a very few weeks Betty had saved up the five shillings. She went
to carry back this money with great grati