ce, nobody
knows where but themselves; their case is very hard."

"Well, madam," says Amy, "though if I could find them I would assist
them, yet my concern is for my boy, as I call him, and I will put him
into a condition to take care of his sisters."

"But, madam," says the good, compassionate creature, "he may not be so
charitable perhaps by his own inclination, for brothers are not
fathers, and they have been cruelly used already, poor girls; we have
often relieved them, both with victuals and clothes too, even while they
were pretended to be kept by their barbarous aunt."

"Well, madam," says Amy, "what can I do for them? They are gone, it
seems, and cannot be heard of. When I see them 'tis time enough."

She pressed Amy then to oblige their brother, out of the plentiful
fortune he was like to have, to do something for his sisters when he
should be able.

Amy spoke coldly of that still, but said she would consider of it; and
so they parted for that time. They had several meetings after this, for
Amy went to see her adopted son, and ordered his schooling, clothes, and
other things, but enjoined them not to tell the young man anything, but
that they thought the trade he was at too hard for him, and they would
keep him at home a little longer, and give him some schooling to fit him
for other business; and Amy appeared to him as she did before, only as
one that had known his mother and had some kindness for him.

Thus this matter passed on for near a twelvemonth, when it happened that
one of my maid-servants having asked Amy leave (for Amy was mistress of
the servants, and took and put out such as she pleased)--I say, having
asked leave to go into the city to see her friends, came home crying
bitterly, and in a most grievous agony she was, and continued so
several days till Amy, perceiving the excess, and that the maid would
certainly cry herself sick, she took an opportunity with her and
examined her about it.

The maid told her a long story, that she had been to see her brother,
the only brother she had in the world, and that she knew he was put out
apprentice to a ----; but there had come a lady in a coach to his uncle
----, who had brought him up, and made him take him home again; and so
the wench run on with the whole story just as 'tis told above, till she
came to that part that belonged to herself. "And there," says she, "I
had not let them know where I lived, and the lady would have taken me,
and, they s