f the shirts ready," said she, as she handed to the lady
the bundle she had brought.

"Ah! have you?" remarked Mrs. Lander, as, with a grave face, she opened
the bundle and examined the garments. This examination was continued
with great minuteness, and long enough almost to have counted every
stitch in the garments. She found the shirts exceedingly well made;
much better than she had expected to find them.

"When will you have the others ready?" she asked, as she laid them
aside.

"I will try and bring them in next Saturday."

"Very well."

Then came a deep silence. The poor woman sat with the fingers of both
hands moving together uneasily, and Mrs. Lander looked away out of the
window and appeared to be intent upon something in the street.

"Are these made to please you?" Mrs. Walton ventured to ask.

"They'll do," was the brief answer; and then came the same dead
silence, and the same interest on the part of the lady in something
passing in the street.

Mrs. Walton wanted the money she had earned for making the shirts, and
Mrs. Lander knew it.

But Mrs. Lander never liked to pay out money, if she could help it; and
as doing so always went against the grain, it was her custom to put off
such unpleasant work as long as possible. She liked to encourage the
very poor, because she knew they generally worked cheaper than people
who were in easier circumstances; but the drawback in their case was,
that they always wanted money the moment their work was done.

Badly as she stood in need of the money she had earned, poor Mrs.
Walton felt reluctant to ask for it until the whole number of shirts
she had engaged to make were done; and so, after sitting for a little
while longer, she got up and went away. It happened that she had
expended her last sixpence on that very morning, and nothing was due to
her from any one but Mrs. Lander. Two days at least would elapse before
she would have any other work ready to take home, and what to do in the
mean time she did not know. With her the reward of every day's labour
was needed when the labour was done; but now she was unpaid for full
four days' work, and her debtor was a lady much interested in the
welfare of the poor, who always gave out her plain sewing to those who
were in need of encouragement.

By placing in pawn some few articles of dress, and paying a heavy
interest upon the little sum of money advanced thereon, the poor widow
was able to keep hunger from her door