“O Uncle! Cousin Emily is trying to be good. She says so in her letter.”
Uncle Morris stooped to imprint a kiss on the upturned lips of the eager child. Then patting her head gently, he said:
“It is not every sower of good seed that finds his harvest sheaf so quickly as you have done. Perhaps the Great Husbandman has given my Jessie hers to encourage her to sow, and sow, and sow again—but Jessie, I have found your Madge’s mother.”
“Have you, truly?” asked Jessie, feeling her interest suddenly revived in her protégé.
“Yes. Come with me to your mother’s room and I will tell you all about it.”
This “mother’s room” was up-stairs, and up they went. Finding Mrs. Carlton there with her seamstress, they sat down, and Uncle Morris told his story. Said he:
“I have seen Mrs. Clifton. She is sober this morning, and is quite a well-bred, intelligent woman. She has been respectable; was well married to a reputable man. But foolishly forsaking their quiet country home, they went to the city in the hope of acquiring property. There her husband, failing to get work, took to drinking and died. Mrs. Clifton buried him, and, dreading to go back to her old home because of poverty, tried to support herself by needle-work. In an evil hour she took to drinking; first as a stimulant to labor, and then as a cordial to soothe her griefs. Of course she soon sank very low, and made poor Madge go out to beg. At last, stung with remorse, she resolved to quit the city, and, seeking work in the country, become a sober woman again. Filled with this purpose she travelled as far as Duncanville with her child, when her appetite for drink came upon her. Leaving Madge at the Four Corners she sought the tavern. The rest you know. We found the child, and she spent the night in the lock-up.”
“Poor thing!” exclaimed Mrs. Carlton.
“Poor little Madge!” cried Jessie, who very naturally felt more for the unfortunate child, than for the unhappy, but guilty mother.
“Yes,” said Mr. Morris, “but pity alone won’t do them much good. The question is, what shall be done with them?”