am sure, as soon as we have acted."

Thus urged, Mrs. Turner consented to relinquish her boarders, and to
move into a small house, at a rent very considerably reduced.

Many articles of furniture they were obliged to dispose of, and this
added to their little fund some five hundred dollars. About two
months after they were fairly settled, Mary said to her mother--

"I've been thinking a good deal lately, mother, about getting into
something that would bring us in a living."

"Well, child, what conclusion have you come to?"

"You don't like the idea of setting up a little store?"

"No, Mary, it is too exposing."

"Nor of keeping a school?"

"No."

"Well, what do you think of my learning the dress-making business?"

"Nonsense, Mary!"

"But, mother, I could learn in six months, and then we could set up
the business, and I am sure we could do well. Almost every one who
sets up dress-making, gets along."

"There was always something low to me in the idea of a milliner or
mantua maker, and I cannot bear the thought of your being one," Mrs.
Turner replied, in a decided tone.

"You know what Pope says, mother--

'Honor and shame from no _condition_ rise;
Act well your part, there all the honor lies.'"

"Yes, but that is poetry, child."

"And song is but the eloquence of truth, some one has beautifully
said," responded Mary, smiling.

The mother was silent, and Mary, whose mind had never imbibed,
fully, her mother's false notions, continued--

"I am sure there can be no wrong in my making dresses. Some one must
make them, and it is the end we have in view, it seems to me, that
determines the character of an action. If I, for the sake of
procuring an honest living for my mother, my little brothers, and
myself, am willing to devote my time to dress-making, instead of
sitting in idleness, and suffering James and Willie to be put out
among strangers, then the calling is to me honorable. My aim is
honorable, and the means are honest. Is it not so, mother?"

"Yes, I suppose it is so. But then there was always something so
degrading to me in the idea of being nothing but a dress-maker!"

Just at that moment a young man, named Martin, who had lived with
them during the last year of their experiment in keeping boarders,
called in to see them. He kept a store in the city, and was reputed
to be well off. He had uniformly manifested an interest in Mrs.
Turner and her family, and was much liked by them. After he