This very morning, Mrs. Smith
Came here to ask relief;
Poor woman! she looked pale and thin,
And overwhelmed with grief.
“Dear madam, I am grieved to come
And trouble you,” she said;
“But new afflictions seem to fall
In torrents on my head.
“Some time before my husband died,
We owed a quarter’s rent,
He laid it up, and would, no doubt,
Have paid it—every cent.
“But when our earnings all were stopp’d,
And we so long were ill,
I was obliged to take it all,
To pay the doctor’s bill.
“This very morn our landlord came,
And sternly bade me pay;
I told him all, and begged he’d wait
A little longer day.
“‘Wait longer? No, indeed I wont;
Too long I have waited now;
So pay, or you’ll march out of doors,
And I shall take your cow.’”
The widow wept, and then she said,
“I am willing to be poor,—
But yet to lose my only cow
Seems too much to endure.”
CHARLES.
Here, take this money, ma, and pay
As far as it will go;
I had rather never have a sword
Than she should suffer so.
EMMA AND ANN.