of that terrible poison in the bottle she
brought to make her mistress drunk a score of times. She may get drunk
_now_, dead drunk; in a little while she may lie upon the floor a
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.'

At the mention of that word, what little self-possession he retained
gave way, and he sobbed outright. It was a sob so passionate and long
suppressed, and it burst forth in spite of him with such vehemence, that
it shook the little form from head to foot, and sounded through the
still room so miserably hopeless, so heart-broken, that it even aroused
the stupefied being nodding in her chair, whom he had the misery to call
by the name of mother. It awakened within her some vague thought of
motherly sympathy;