"Put ye're trust in the Lord, ma'am; that's all I can tell ye. Shall I give ye a bit of my life, ma'am. It'll show yer how the good Lord carries his children through a dale of throuble."
"Yes, Bridget, I should like to hear it; but I'm so faint. I've taken nothing since yesterday morning."
"I'll run down, and make ye a cup of tea. It's better for us not to mind the coffee at all, as himself is away."
In a short time she returned with tea and a cracker, which Gertrude swallowed with a relish. Then leaving the cup standing on the table, she began:
"I'm not a girl, ma'am, at all. I'm a married woman; and the ring is in my trunk. Patrick McCarty was as fine a bye as one would wish to see. He coorted me for a year; for he used to take a drop at 'the public;' and I thought it wasn't good for him, and we didn't agree about it. At last he said he'd lave drinking intirely if I'd be married, and come to Ameriky. I had seventeen pounds, ma'am, of my own airning, and a chist of as fine clothes as any one would wish."
"I consinted at last, and directly after our marriage we started for Liverpool. A cousin of Patrick's came along with us; a bold girl, and I didn't like my husband to be talking so loud with her in the car. He took a room for the three of us, with a closet in it for Maggie to sleep in. From the first day he treated me worse than a dog. He wanted me to give up all my money to his care; and when I said 'twas safer for me to keep it in my chist, he abused me awfully; and Maggie took his part against me. I don't know what I should have done if my mother hadn't taught me to pray. I used to go in the closet and ask God to continue my friend; and I had need of him, for one day when I had gone out to ease my burden by walking through the dirty streets, Patrick and Maggie carried my trunk away between them, thinking to get to the vessel and sail without me."
"I was like one disthracted; but whin I found my money and clothes and every thing, even to my Bible, was gone, I told mysilf 'twas no use fretting. I got a place pretty soon out of the city, where I churned butter and washed keelers; and the Lord was helping me grow continted, whin one day I heard a man had been run over and was lying in a shed with no one to look after him."
"I don't know what made me go there, for I had not thought of seeing Patrick; but it was he, poor feller; and I knew at oncet he had but a little while to live."
"I got leave of my mistress to have him moved to my room; and I nursed him as well as I was able, and he, all the time, as humble as one could wish. He and Maggie had quarrelled about the money until they agreed that she should have the clothes, and he, the siventeen pounds. All but one pound was gone; and it cost that to bury him; and I wouldn't be without the thought that I forgave him, the Lord helping me, for a chist full of money."
"Was he sorry for his cruel treatment?"