, and made a factory slave or household drudge; for
such power had the laws given to the rulers of the town. But this fear,
miserable as it was, was now overpowered by another. The suggestion had
reached the ear of the unhappy woman that she and her child would be
conveyed to the house of the town's poor, the place we have attempted to
describe. God grant that no fair reader of this homely but too true story
should ever feel the misery which this fear inflicted on the mind of this
friendless mother! Oh, that true Charity had been present in the person of
her best representative on earth, a sensible, affectionate and
liberal-minded woman, to minister to the wants, to soothe the mind of her
unhappy sister-woman, and cheer her exertions for self-support! None such
appeared, and the heart of the poor woman sank within her. Her exertions
were paralyzed; for struggle as she might to avoid it, the alms-house,
with its debased and debasing society, was ever before her eyes as her
ultimate destiny. It was in vain that she endeavored to prepare her mind
for this result. She could endure any degree of privation, but not
degradation and infamy.

Time wore on, without any renewed hints of interference, and she began to
hope that she was forgotten. Delusive hope! It was felt as a disgrace that
she should suffer, when the _law_ had provided a remedy, and they had paid
for it. And it was therefore decreed by the magnates of the town that she
must be removed, and the day had arrived (with which we commenced our
narrative,) on which the paupers were to be disposed of for the coming
year. Deacon S---- was the person deputed by his colleagues, as we have
mentioned, to convey Mrs. Selden and her daughter to the alms-house.

However prepared we may suppose ourselves to meet misfortune, the moment
of its arrival takes us by surprise. We will not attempt to picture the
utter desolation of mind and the despair which filled her heart, when this
man arrived at her door, to convey herself, and oh! far worse, her
innocent and intelligent child, to that scene of vice and debasement.
Although her dislike to the measure was known, yet from her quiet and
reserved manners, little opposition was anticipated. The evils of life had
accumulated upon her in a regular gradation, and she had been enabled to
bear their weight, up to this point, with outward composure; looking
forward to, but yet hoping this last cup of bitterness would never be
presented; or if