rdest of all, she had to
break the matter to Georgie, who made a loud outcry. Everybody had new
clothes at Christmas. The other boys would laugh at him. He would have
new clothes, she had promised them to him. The poor widow had only
kisses to give him. She cast about among her little ornaments to see if
she could sell anything to procure the desired novelties. She remembered
her India shawl that Dobbin sent her, which might be of value to a
merchant with whom ladies had all sorts of dealings and bargains in these
articles. She smiled brightly as she kissed away Georgie to school in the
morning, and the boy felt that there was good news in her look.

As soon as he had gone she hurried away to the merchant with her shawl
hidden under her cloak. As she walked she calculated how, with the
proceeds of her shawl, besides the clothes, she would buy the books that
he wanted, and pay his half year's schooling at the little school to
which he went; and how she would buy a new coat for her father. She was
not mistaken as to the value of the shawl. It was a very fine one, for
which the merchant gave her twenty guineas. She ran on, amazed and
flurried with her riches, to a shop where she purchased the books Georgie
longed for, and went home exulting. And she pleased herself by writing in
the fly leaf in her neatest little hand, "George Osborne, A Christmas
gift from his affectionate mother."

She was going to place the books on Georgie's table, when in the passage
she and her mother met. The gilt bindings of the little volumes caught
the old lady's eye.

"What are those?" she said.

"Some books for Georgie," Amelia replied. "I--I promised them to him at
Christmas."

"Books!" cried the old lady indignantly; books! when the whole house
wants bread! Oh, Amelia! You break my heart with your books, and that boy
of yours, whom you are ruining, though part with him you will not! Oh,
Amelia, may God send you a more dutiful child than I have had! There's
Joseph deserts his father in his old age; and there's George, who might
be rich, going to school like a lord, with a gold watch and chain round
his neck, while my dear, dear, old man is without a sh-shilling."
Hysterical sobs ended Mrs. Sedley's grief, which quite melted Amelia's
tender heart.

"Oh, mother, mother!" she cried. "You told me nothing. I--I promised
him the books. I--I only sold my shawl this morning. Take the money--take
everything--" taking out her precious golden sove