denrod. She had been here in her
carriage to call upon her,--not very often.---Were her rich relations
kind and helpful to her?--Well, yes; at least they made her presents now
and then. Three or four years ago they sent her a silver waiter, and
every Christmas they sent her a boquet,--it must cost as much as five
dollars, the Landlady thought.

--And how did the Lady receive these valuable and useful gifts?

--Every Christmas she got out the silver waiter and borrowed a glass
tumbler and filled it with water, and put the boquet in it and set it on
the waiter. It smelt sweet enough and looked pretty for a day or two,
but the Landlady thought it wouldn't have hurt 'em if they'd sent a piece
of goods for a dress, or at least a pocket-handkercher or two, or
something or other that she could 'a' made some kind of use of; but
beggars must n't be choosers; not that she was a beggar, for she'd sooner
die than do that if she was in want of a meal of victuals. There was a
lady I remember, and she had a little boy and she was a widow, and after
she'd buried her husband she was dreadful poor, and she was ashamed to
let her little boy go out in his old shoes, and copper-toed shoes they
was too, because his poor little ten--toes--was a coming out of 'em; and
what do you think my husband's rich uncle,--well, there now, it was me
and my little Benjamin, as he was then, there's no use in hiding of
it,--and what do you think my husband's uncle sent me but a plaster of
Paris image of a young woman, that was,--well, her appearance wasn't
respectable, and I had to take and wrap her up in a towel and poke her
right into my closet, and there she stayed till she got her head broke
and served her right, for she was n't fit to show folks. You need n't
say anything about what I told you, but the fact is I was desperate poor
before I began to support myself taking boarders, and a lone woman
without her--her--

The sentence plunged into the gulf of her great remembered sorrow, and
was lost to the records of humanity.

--Presently she continued in answer to my questions: The Lady was not
very sociable; kept mostly to herself. The Young Girl (our Scheherezade)
used to visit her sometimes, and they seemed to like each other, but the
Young Girl had not many spare hours for visiting. The Lady never found
fault, but she was very nice in her tastes, and kept everything about her
looking as neat and pleasant as she could.

---What did she do?--W