FRED THE APPRENTICE.

————

CHAPTER I.

THE WIDOW AND HER SONS.

YNE of those miserable scenes which
poverty so often brings with it took
place about the middle of January
18—, in one of the most wretched
houses in a suburb of Mulhausen.

In a garret exposed to all the winds, and into
which the cold air entered through the broken
window-panes, a woman about forty years of
age was lying on a tattered bed; her ghastly
face showed that her life was coming to an end.
Mrs. Kossmall, for such was the name of the
dying woman, was a widow who had struggled for
several years against extreme misery, and had
suffered the greatest privations. She had worn
out a frame naturally strong by hard work, which

would require almost more than human strength
5