ated home. But the wallet, with its
contents, had been abstracted. The little fund my mother had always
managed to keep on hand was too small to meet this heavy draft of the
reward in addition to that occasioned by the funeral, so that, when that
sad ceremony was over, we found ourselves beginning the world that now
opened on us incumbered with a debt of fifty dollars.

But though borne down by the weight of our affliction, we were far from
being hopelessly discouraged. It is true that my young hopes had been
suddenly blasted. The bright pictures of the future which we had painted
in our little sitting-room the very morning of the day that our calamity
overtook us had all faded from sight, and were remembered only in
contrast with the dark shadows that now filled their places. The cup,
brimming with joyous anticipations, had been dashed from my lips. My
birthday passed in sorrow and gloom. But I roused myself from a torpor
which would have been likely to increase by giving way to it, and put on
all the energy of which I was capable. I felt, that, while I had griefs
for the dead, I had duties to perform to the living. The staff on which
we had mainly leaned for support had been taken away, and we were now
left to depend exclusively on our own exertions. I saw that the
condition of my mother devolved the chief burden on me, and I determined
that I would resolutely assume it.

I had Fred immediately apprenticed to an iron-founder in the
neighborhood; and thenceforward, by his weekly allowance for board, he
became a contributor to the common support. My knowledge of the
sewing-machine secured for me a situation in a large establishment, in
which more than thirty other girls were employed in making bosoms,
wristbands, and collars for shirts; and I gradually recovered from what
at first was the bitter disappointment of having no machine of my own.

I have seen it stated in the newspaper, that, when some cotton had been
imported into a certain manufacturing town in England, where all the
mills had long been closed for want of a supply from this country, the
people, who were previously in the greatest distress, went out to meet
it as it was approaching the town, and the women wept over the bales,
and kissed them, and then sang a hymn of thanksgiving for the welcome
importation. It would give them work! It was with a feeling akin to this
that I took my position in the great establishment referred to, having
also succeeded in o