to
support her timid steps in rough and dangerous places. But alas! she
lived and was no staff to lean upon; but was, instead, an ever present
rod of punishment. She was a harmful woman, a destroyer of young
tempers, a hardener of young hearts. Many a woman of quick, short temper
has a kind heart; while even the sullenly sulky woman generally has a
few rich, sweet drops of the milk of human kindness, which she is
willing to bestow upon her own immediate belongings. But Semantha's
mother was not of these. How, one might ask, had this wretch obtained
two good husbands? Yes, Semantha had a stepfather, and the only excuse
for the suicidal marriage act as performed by these two victims was that
the woman was well enough to look upon--a trim, bright-eyed, brown
creature with the mark of the beast well hidden from view.

When Semantha, who was her first born, too, came home with gifts and
money in her hands, her mother received her with frowning brows and
sullen, silent lips. When the child came home with empty hands, and gave
only cheerfully performed hard manual labour, she was received with
fierce eyes, cruel rankling words, and many a cut and heavy blow, and
was often thrust from the house itself, because 'twas known the girl was
afraid of darkness.

[Illustration: _Clara Morris before coming to Daly's Theatre in 1870_]

Her stepfather then would secretly let her in, though sometimes she
dared go no farther than the shed, and there she would sit the whole
night through, in all the helpless agony of fright. But all this was as
nothing compared to the cruelty she had yet to meet out to poor
Semantha, whose greatest fault seemed to be her intense longing for some
one to love. Her mother _would not_ be loved, her own father had wisely
given the whole thing up, her step-father _dared_ not be loved. So, when
the second family began to materialize, Semantha's joy knew no bounds.
What a welcome she gave each newcomer! How she worked and walked and
cooed and sang and made herself an humble bond-maiden before them. And
they loved her and cried to her, and bit hard upon her needle stabbed
forefinger with their first wee, white, triumphant teeth, and for just a
little, little time poor Semantha was not poor, but very rich indeed.
And that strange creature, who had brought them all into the world,
looked on and saw the love and smiled a nasty smile; and Semantha saw
the smile, and her heart quaked, as well it might. For so soon as t