voice, and added another pleasurable
emotion to those he was already feeling. The mother sat down, and, for
a few moments, enjoyed the sight of her sick child, as with unabated
eagerness she continued to extract the refreshing juice from the fruit.
When she went down-stairs, and resumed her household duties, her heart
beat more lightly in her bosom than it had beaten for a long time.

Not once through that whole day did Thomas Claire feel the want of his
pipe; for the thought of the orange kept his mind in so pleased a
state, that a mere sensual desire like that for a whiff of tobacco had
no power over him.

Thinking of the orange, of course, brought other thoughts; and before
the day closed, Claire had made a calculation of how much his beer and
tobacco money would amount to in a year. The sum astonished him. He
paid rent for the little house in which he lived, two pounds sterling a
year, which he always thought a large sum. But his beer and tobacco
cost nearly seven pounds! He went over and over the calculation a dozen
times, in doubt of the first estimate, but it always came out the same.
Then he began to go over in his mind the many comforts seven pounds per
annum would give to his family; and particularly how many little
luxuries might be procured for Lizzy, whose delicate appetite turned
from the coarse food that was daily set before her.

But to give up the beer and tobacco in toto, when it was thought of
seriously, appeared impossible. How could he live without them?

On that evening the customer whose boots he had taken home in the
morning, called in, unexpectedly, and paid for them. Claire retained a
sixpence of the money and gave the balance to his wife. With this
sixpence in his pocket he went out for a mug of beer, and some tobacco
to replenish his pipe. He stayed some time--longer than he usually took
for such an errand.

When he came back he had three oranges in his pocket; and in his hands
were two fresh bunns, and a cup of sweet new milk. No beer had passed
his lips, and his pipe was yet unsupplied. He had passed through
another long conflict with his old appetites; but love for his child
came off, as before, the conqueror.

Lizzy, who drooped about all day, lying down most of her time, never
went to sleep early. She was awake, as usual, when her father returned.
With scarcely less eagerness than she had eaten the orange in the
morning, did she now drink the nourishing milk and eat the sweet bunn