u would cut that
hand off you sooner than raise it to your own Margaret, as you used to
call me. It is pity that I feel for you, Art dear, but no anger; an'
God, who sees my heart, knows that."

Now that he was settled, and her own temple bound up, the children once
more commenced their cry of famine; for nothing can suspend the stern
cravings of hunger, especially when fanged by the bitter consciousness
that there is no food to be had. Just then, however, the girl returned
from her sister's, loaded with oatmeal--a circumstance which changed the
cry of famine into one of joy.

But now, what was to be done for fire, there was none in the house.

"Here is half-a-crown," said the girl, "that she sent you; but she put
her hands acrass, and swore by the five crasses, that unless you left
Art at wanst, they'd never give you a rap farden's worth of assistance
agin, if you and they wor to die in the streets."

"Leave him!" said Margaret; "oh never! When I took him, I took him for
betther an' for worse, and I'm not goin' to neglect my duty to him now,
because he's down. All the world has desarted him, but I'll never desart
him. Whatever may happen, Art dear--poor, lost Art--whatever may happen,
I'll live with you, beg with you, die with you; anything but desart
you."

She then, after wiping the tears which accompanied her words, sent out
the girl, who bought some turf and milk, in order to provide a meal of
wholesome food for the craving children.

"Now," said she to the girl, "what is to be done? for if poor Art
sees this meal in the morning, he will sell the best part of it to get
whiskey; for I need scarcely tell you," she added, striving to palliate
his conduct, "that he cannot do without it, however he might contrive to
do without his breakfast." But, indeed, this was true. So thoroughly was
he steeped in drunkenness--in the low, frequent, and insatiable appetite
for whiskey--that, like tobacco or snuff, it became an essential portion
of his life--a necessary-evil, without which he could scarcely exist. At
all events, the poor children had one comfortable meal, which made them
happy; the little stock that remained was stowed away in some nook or
other, where Art was not likely to find it; the girl went home, and we
were about to say that the rest of this miserable family went to bed;
but, alas! they had no bed to go to, with the exception of a little
straw, and a thin single blanket to cover them.

If Margaret's con