ill get the hammer, and, sleep or wake, we'll do it.' And father
said, 'It's in the shed.' So I saw there was no time to be lost, sir,
and--and--but you know all the rest."

"But how did you escape?"

"Oh, my father, after talking to Walters, came to my room, and beat
and--and--frightened me; and when he was gone to bed, I put on my
clothes, and stole out; it was just light; and I walked on till I met
you."

"Poor child, in what a den of vice you have been brought up!"

"Anan, sir."

"She don't understand me. Have you been taught to read and write?"

"Oh no!"

"But I suppose you have been taught, at least, to say your
catechism--and you pray sometimes?"

"I have prayed to father not to beat me."

"But to God?"

"God, sir--what is that?"*

* This ignorance--indeed the whole sketch of Alice--is from the life;
nor is such ignorance, accompanied by what almost seems an instinctive
or intuitive notion of right or wrong, very uncommon, as our police
reports can testify. In the _Examiner_ for, I think, the year 1835,
will be found the case of a young girl ill-treated by her father, whose
answers to the interrogatories of the magistrate are very similar to
those of Alice to the questions of Maltravers.

Maltravers drew back, shocked and appalled. Premature philosopher as he
was, this depth of ignorance perplexed his wisdom. He had read all the
disputes of schoolmen, whether or not the notion of a Supreme Being is
innate; but he had never before been brought face to face with a living
creature who was unconscious of a God.

After a pause, he said: "My poor girl, we misunderstand each other. You
know that there is a God?"

"No, sir."

"Did no one ever tell you who made the stars you now survey--the earth
on which you tread?"

"No."

"And have you never thought about it yourself?"

"Why should I? What has that to do with being cold and hungry?"

Maltravers looked incredulous. "You see that great building, with the
spire rising in the starlight?"

"Yes, sir, sure."

"What is it called?"

"Why, a church."

"Did you never go into it?"

"No."

"What do people do there?"

"Father says one man talks nonsense, and the other folk listen to him."

"Your father is--no matter. Good heavens! what shall I do with this
unhappy child?"

"Yes, sir, I am very unhappy," said Alice, catching at the last words;
and the tears rolled silently down her cheeks.

Maltravers never was more touched in his life. What