"Yes, ma'am."
"Did he approve of it?"
"No, ma'am; he always warned me, and sometimes forbid me. But as soon as he was off to his work, I would shift my clothes and go out. I hurried back, and got them shifted again before he came home; and he wouldn't know it till I had got a great many pieces."
"Does he turn against you now?"
"O no! He is a good man; and he cried when I came here,—for me and the poor childer. He pitied me, and told me how hard it would be on me, seein' I was never used to it."
Crazy Manhattan came up just in time to hear the last sentence.
"An' sure it is hard on her! I've known her outside, and she's not bein' used to lift her finger to work."
"She had better have been, than to have been lifting her finger to take other people's goods."
"Give me a slice of bread, ma'am, an' you please! I've been ironing in the wash-room, and I've done your own things beautifully. Don't tell the Deputy!" she said, as she slipped it under her apron and ran away.
"I knew her a little outside," said the steam woman; "but she was nothing but a house thief!"