go in at a side door, and something about
her sad face made Pet think that this girl was in great distress. She
formed her wish, and presently found that _she_, _Pet_, _was the girl_.
Up a great many flights of stairs she went, passed gay show-rooms where
fine ladies were trying on new dresses, and at last she arrived at a
workroom where many white-faced girls were sewing busily with their
heads bent down. The little seamstress, who was now one with Pet, had
been out matching silks for the forewoman of the work, and now she sat
down with a bright heap of satin on her knees. "Oh, dear!" thought Pet,
as she threaded her needle, "how very heavy her heart is! I can hardly
hold it up; and how weak she is? I feel as if she was going to faint!"
And then Pet became quite occupied with the seamstress's thoughts as she
had been once with the ploughman's. She went home to the girl's lodging,
a wretched garret at the top of a wretched house, and there she found a
poor old woman, the young girl's grandmother, and a little boy asleep on
some straw. The poor old woman could not sleep with cold, though her
good grand-daughter covered her over with her own clothes. Pet took care
to hang up her clock, newly wound, as soon as she went in; and the poor
old woman was so blind she did not take any notice of it. And, oh, what
painful dreams Pet had that night in the girl's brain! This poor child's
heart was torn to pieces by just the same kind of grief and terror which
had distracted the mind of the ploughman: grief at seeing those she
loved suffering want in spite of all her exertions for them, terror lest
they should die of that suffering for need of something that she could
not procure them. The little boy used to cry with hunger; the young
seamstress often went to work without having had any breakfast, and with
only a crust of bread in her pocket. It was a sad time for Pet, and she
thought it would never pass over. At last, one day the poor girl fell
ill, and Pet found herself lying on some straw in the corner of the
garret, burning with fever, and no one near to help her. The poor old
woman could only weep and mourn; and the boy, who was too young to get
work to do, sat beside her in despair. Pet heard him say to himself at
last, "I will go and beg; she told me not, but I must do something for
her." And away he went but came back sobbing. Nobody would give him
anything; everybody told him he ought to be at school. "And so I should
be if sh