her few friends to tea, and conviviality was at
its height. The subject of conversation was poverty. Mrs Loper, a
weak-minded but amiable lady, asserted that a large family with 500
pounds a year was a poor family. Mrs Loper did not know that Mrs
Twitter's income was five hundred, but she suspected it. Mrs Twitter
herself carefully avoided giving the slightest hint on the subject.

"Of course," continued Mrs Loper, "I don't mean to say that people with
five hundred are _very_ poor, you know; indeed it all depends on the
family. With six children like you, now, to feed and clothe and
educate, and with everything so dear as it is now, I should say that
five hundred was poverty."

"Well, I don't quite agree with you, Mrs Loper, on that point. To my
mind it does not so much depend on the family, as on the notions, and
the capacity to manage, in the head of the family. I remember one
family just now, whose head was cut off suddenly, I may say in the prime
of life. A hundred and fifty a year or thereabouts was the income the
widow had to count on, and she was left with five little ones to rear.
She trained them well, gave them good educations, made most of their
garments with her own hands when they were little, and sent one of her
boys to college, yet was noted for the amount of time she spent in
visiting the poor, the sick, and the afflicted, for whom she had always
a little to spare out of her limited income. Now, if wealth is to be
measured by results, I think we may say that that poor lady was rich.
She was deeply mourned by a large circle of poor people when she was
taken home to the better land. Her small means, having been judiciously
invested by a brother, increased a little towards the close of life, but
she never was what the world esteems rich."

Mrs Twitter looked at a very tall man with a dark unhandsome
countenance, as if to invite his opinion.

"I quite agree with you," he said, helping himself to a crumpet, "there
are some people with small incomes who seem to be always in funds, just
as there are other people with large incomes who are always hard-up.
The former are really rich, the latter really poor."

Having delivered himself of these sentiments somewhat sententiously, Mr
Crackaby,--that was his name,--proceeded to consume the crumpet.

There was a general tendency on the part of the other guests to agree
with their hostess, but one black sheep in the flock objected. He quite
agreed, of c