“No, indeed,” sighed the poor girl.

MARGARET AND MRS. PORTER.

“And how was that? I thought that you were pretty sure of being settled there comfortably.”

“Why,” replied Margaret, “the lady asked me why I had left my last place; so I told her that both I and the cook had been sent away because a bank-note had been lost in the house.”

“You were not so mad as to tell her that?”

“It was the truth,” calmly answered Margaret. “What else could I have told?”

“Well,” said Mrs. Porter, “at that rate you will never get a place.”

“God help me!” said poor Margaret, meekly. “He will not let me starve for obeying his word. I never touched the bank-note.”

“I believe you,” answered her neighbour; “for I do not think that you ever spoke an untruth in your life.”