6 Fred the Apprentice.

to perform. At the death of her husband she
was left to support two children, the elder of
whom was scarcely four years old. It had been
only by the most exhausting labour that she had
been able to bring up her fatherless children.

She had passed through successive stages of
miserable poverty, each worse than the other,
often having had to wait until the morrow for
the pittance she had earned, when she wanted
it at the time to buy food to satisfy the cravings
of hunger of herself or her family. She had
felt for a time that her strength was giving way;
but when it entirely left her, and she was utterly
unable to work, the greater number of the per-
sons who employed her, indifferent as to the
cause of what they called her want of industry,
ceased to give her any more work. If she had
been encouraged and helped, the poor woman
might have recovered from her illness; but, left
unaided in this manner, it was impossible for
her to struggle on any longer.

One evening, on entering her garret in a more
depressed state than usual, she glanced at the
empty shelves of the closet and the fireless
hearth, and said to Frederick, the younger of
her two sons: