come
back soon, or come back late, and that's all he knows about him. What
shall you do, little Meg?'

'Mother said I was to be sure to take care of the children till father
comes home,' she answered, steadying her voice; 'and I'll do it, please
God. I can ask Him to help me, and He will. He'll take care of us.'

'He hasn't took care o' me,' said Kitty bitterly.

'May be you haven't asked Him,' said Meg.

Kitty was silent for a minute, and then she spoke in a voice half
choked with sobs.

'It's too late now,' she said, 'but He'll take care of you, never fear;
and oh! I wish He'd let me help Him. I wish I could do something for
you, little Meg; for your mother spoke kind to me once, and made me
think of my own mother. There, just leave me alone, will you? I'm off
to bed now, and you go to bed too. I'll help you all I can.'

She pushed Meg back gently into her attic, and closed the door upon
her; but Meg heard her crying and moaning aloud in her own room, until
she herself fell asleep.

CHAPTER VIII

Little Meg's Red Frock in Pawn

Meg felt very forlorn when she opened her heavy eyelids the next
morning. It was certain now that her father could not be home for some
time, it might be a long time; and how was she to buy bread for her
children and herself? She took down her mother's letter from the end
of a shelf which supplied the place of a chimney-piece, and looked at
it anxiously; but she dared not ask anybody to read it for her, lest it
should contain some mention of the money hidden in the box; and that
must be taken care of in every way, because it did not belong to her,
or father even, but to one of his mates. She had no friend to go to in
all the great city. Once she might have gone to the teacher at the
school where she had learned to read a little; but that had been in
quite a different part of London, on the other side of the river, and
they had moved from it before her father had started on his last
voyage. Meg sat thinking and pondering sadly enough, until suddenly,
how she did not know, her fears were all taken away, and her childish
heart lightened. She called Robin, and bade him kneel down beside her,
and folding baby's hands together, she closed her own eyes, and bowed
her head, while she asked God for the help He had promised to give.

'Pray God,' said little Meg, 'You've let mother die, and father be took
bad at the other side of the world, and there's nobody to take care o