58 YESSIE'S ACQUAINTANCE MADE

given her part of the refreshment which he had
with him for himself, and had spoken a good word
for her to the woman of the house where he put
up; but that, after she left his wagon, which was
at the town’s end, he had seen no more of her, nor
could he tell what it was her intention to do, or
where to go. My grandmother was so affected by
this mark of kindness, especially, as she said, in a
man, that she thought within herself, what could
she give him in return. She felt in her pocket, but
money she had none, excepting a crooked Queen
Anne’s sixpence with a hole through it, which she
had kept many years. This she gave to him, and
begged of him to keep for her sake; and for her
sake, also, to be kind to poor women whenever he
met with them, and to take her blessing for the
kindness he had shown her daughter. Instead of
going home, she at once turned herself round, and
walked through the night back to the town, where
she arrived at daybreak. The woman of the
public-house could give no information respecting
her daughter, so at night she set off home again.”
“‘She spent that day, and the next, and the next
after that,” said the old woman rapidly, interrupting
her, and throwing the apron from her face, and
sitting up in the chair; “three whole days she
spent in searching for her daughter! It was a
large town, and a wicked town, and nothing but sin,
and misery, and sorrow, did she meet with every-
where, wherever she sought for her poor outcast!
But she did not find her! Many a fair young
creature she saw, as desolate as her own child; but
her own child she found not, and, with a bleeding,
' downcast heart, and a weary body, she retraced her