end of
November, and the weather had set in extremely cold. A heavy fall of
snow, with a sharp frost, was succeeded by a slight thaw, which made the
streets worse to walk in than either a severe frost or completely wet,
when one morning Mrs. Smith told me to take an apple-pie to the baker's.
I took the pie and went as carefully as I could, that I might not fall,
or get my feet wet, for my shoes were now so worn out that they did not
keep my feet from the ground; but in crossing the main street in the
borough, as I was trying to step over the gutter, which was choked up
with snow and loose pieces of ice, my foot slipped, and down I fell. The
pie went into the gutter, where the dish was smashed to pieces, and the
paste, sugar, and apples mingled with the dirty water. At first I could
not see, owing to the quantity of muddy water that had splashed up into
my face; but, having cleared my eyes, I saw an old match-woman cramming
the pie-crust into her basket, a crowd of ragged children were fishing
the apples out of the gutter, and a number of men and women, who ought
to have known better, were laughing at me.

'Pray, ma'am,' said I to the match-woman, 'give me back the dough that I
may take it home.'

'La, child!' said she, 'what good can a bit of dirty pie-crust do you? I
am sure your mistress would not use it, and when I have washed off the
mud it will make me a little dumpling.'

'Pray give it me back,' said I. 'Oh dear! what shall I do? I shall be so
beat!'

'Beat!' repeated a man, who at that moment came up and lifted me over
the gutter on to the pavement, 'you will be killed. If I was in your
place, I would run away. Depend upon it, if you go back, Mother Smith
would beat you to death.'

This man lived in our street, and knew the Smiths very well. A woman, on
hearing their name mentioned, looked at me and said: 'Is this Smith's
girl? Why, they will kill her and eat her for their dinner as she has
lost them their pie.'

'They would not gain much by that,' said a man, 'for the girl has not a
pound of flesh upon her bones.'

'Run, I tell you,' said the man who had first spoken to me. 'It is
impossible for you to be worse off than you are with them; and if they
catch you, they will be the death of you.'

'Run, girl, run,' was shouted on all sides, 'run, run for your life!'
called out the boys, who by this time had pretty well picked up all the
apples. I still stood weeping, not knowing what to do, when a woman
e