Brought out of peril

[CHAPTER I]

FANNY'S FIRST HOLIDAY

"I DON'T see why you should be so disagreeable about it, mother. It was my own ten shillings that I paid for the watch."

"Watch, indeed!" exclaimed her mother, as though the very word was an offence to her. "What do you know about buying a watch?—a bit of a girl in her first place. You need all the money you can earn to keep you in decent clothes, to say nothing of what you owe me for all the things I have had to buy to make you tidy, and give you a fair start in service." And Mrs. Brown almost burst into tears as her eyes fell again on the glittering silver watch her daughter was so proud to display.

Fanny was a little over sixteen, a tall, well-grown girl for her age, stout and rosy, and looking the picture of health, as she stood there telling her mother her trial month was over, that her mistress was very well satisfied with the way she had done her work, and that she was to have six pounds a year at first, a whole day's holiday once a month, and every Sunday evening to go to church.

"I am very glad to have that bit of news, Fanny," said her mother, in a more cheerful tone. "But still, I wish you had left the watch alone. I don't believe in such finery for a girl like you."