ey appeared kind and polite to
each other, and seemed to think that in me they had found a friend.
They talked very fast, and told me many things about themselves and
their way of life.

"We save our money to pay the rent."

"How much does your mother pay?"

"Three dollars."

"Three dollars a month!" I said, thinking how much it was for a poor
woman, who had herself and three children to feed and clothe.

"I don't know whether it is a month, or a week, or how long; I only
know it is three dollars.

"Once we were turned out in the snow. Oh! how cold my feet were!" The
remembrance of her sufferings seemed almost to make her shiver.

"What did you do?"

"A woman took us in her house."

"It is a long walk for you," said Mary Ann, as we crossed one of the
broad avenues, "and we live in the top of the house."

When we reached the house where the children lived, Mary Ann and Ellen
ran up before me so fast that I lost sight of them. The hall was so
dark that I could not see the stairs, but I could hear their feet
pattering quickly on, and I followed as best I could. The last flight
of stairs I could see distinctly, for the sky-light was just over
them. They were brown with age, but they were evidently often swept
and washed. I entered a room in which I saw the children. The woman
there they introduced as their mother. She did not receive me with
much cordiality. I suppose she wondered why I had come there. Her room
was small and scantily furnished. It was heated by a small furnace.
The great gray cat was dozing in the corner.

I seated myself on a clean wooden chair, and began to talk with the
mother about her children. She told me of her only son, "as fine a boy
as ever stood on two feet," and her anxiety in regard to him. I
attempted to encourage her to hope that so soon as navigation closed,
he would return to her, for he had been employed on a coal-boat; but
she refused to be comforted. She wished to find a place for Joanna in
the city.

Mary Ann, who is nine years old, said she should like to go to the
country. She thought she could wash dishes, set the table, and sweep,
and I thought so too, for she seemed to me one of the smartest little
girls I ever saw. She would have been quite willing to accompany me to
the country, if her mother had consented, and I could have taken her.

The children's mother came to this country when she was quite young,
and lived for several years as a servant in different famili