“Lay down anywhere,” said the landlady, dropping the five cents into her pocket.
Tom’s preparation for bed did not take long. No undressing was required, for it was the custom here to sleep with the day’s clothes on. Tom stowed herself away in a corner, and in five minutes was asleep.
It was but little after eight o’clock, and she was, at present, the only lodger.
No sooner did her deep, regular breathing indicate slumber, than the landlady began to indulge in various suspicious movements. She first put down her baby, and then taking a lantern,—the only light which could safely be carried into the lodging-room, on account of the straw upon the floor,—crept quietly into the inner room.
“She’s fast asleep,” she muttered.
She approached Tom with cautious step. She need not have been afraid to awaken her. Tom was a good sleeper, and not likely to wake up, unless roughly awakened, until morning.
Tom was lying on her side, with her face resting on one hand.
The woman stooped down, and began to look for the pocket in which she kept her money; but it was in that part of her dress upon which she was lying. This embarrassed the woman somewhat, but an idea occurred to her. She took up a straw, and, bending over, gently tickled Tom’s ear. Tom shook her head, as a cat would under similar circumstances, and on its being repeated turned over, muttering, “Don’t, granny!”
This was what her dishonest landlady wanted. She thrust her hand into Tom’s pocket, and drew out the poor girl’s entire worldly treasure. Tom, unconscious of the robbery, slept on; and the woman went back to the front room to wait for more lodgers. They began to come in about ten, and by twelve the room was full. It was a motley collection, and would have been a curious, though sad study, to any humane observer. They were most of them in the last stages of ill-fortune, yet among them was more than one who had once filled a respectable position in society. Here was a man of thirty-five, who ten years before had filled a good place, with a fair salary, in a city bank. But in an evil hour he helped himself to some of the funds of the bank. He lost his situation, and, though he escaped imprisonment, found his prospects blasted. So he had gone down hill, until at length he found himself reduced to such a lodging-house as this, fortunate if he could command the small sum needful to keep him from a night in the streets.
