CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH.
GENEROSITY AND GRATITUDE.
Sometime after Miss Lydia’s cousin Fanny had left her, little Lydia, on her return from a walk with the maid, ran, all in tears, into her Mamma’s room; and told her, that little Sally’s mother was in very great distress.
Lydia.
She owes, Mamma, four guineas to Mr. Flint for living in his house; and because she has not money to pay him, he is going to take every thing she has, and turn her into the street. The poor woman and children were crying so sadly when I went by the door, that it made me quite uncomfortable, as Miss Seymour says, to see them.
The poor woman said, she and her children must go into the workhouse. The little girl was crying to see her mother cry; and the boy said, they would take away his rabbit, and his little chair in which he used to sit by the fire-side. Do, pray, Mamma, do something for the poor woman. Perhaps, if you speak to Mr. Flint he will not take her things.
Mamma.
My dear love, I know Mr. Flint better than you do: it is not possible to persuade him to forego his money; and as to assisting her with four guineas, it is more than I can well spare; besides, you know there are many people in distress as well as she.
Lydia.
Perhaps so: but I have seen this poor woman and the children cry so! and the little ones have been so civil to me!