'd be much less sickness abaht.'

They sat for a while in silence, then Mrs. Kemp remarked:

'Yer know, Liza, it strikes me as 'ow we could do with a drop more.
You not bein' in the 'abit of tikin' anythin' I only brought just this
little drop for me; an' it ain't took us long ter finish thet up. But
as you're an invalid like we'll git a little more this time; it's sure
ter turn aht useful.'

'But you ain't got nothin' ter put it in.'

'Yus, I 'ave,' answered Mrs. Kemp; 'there's thet bottle as they gives
me at the 'orspital. Just empty the medicine aht into the pile, an'
wash it aht, an' I'll tike it round to the pub myself.'

Liza, when she was left alone, began to turn things over in her mind.
She did not feel so utterly unhappy as before, for the things she had
gone through seemed further away.

'After all,' she said, 'it don't so much matter.'

Mrs. Kemp came in.

''Ave a little drop more, Liza.' she said.

'Well, I don't mind if I do. I'll get some tumblers, shall I? There's
no mistike abaht it,' she added, when she had taken a little, 'it do
buck yer up.'

'You're right, Liza--you're right. An' you wanted it badly. Fancy you
'avin' a fight with a woman! Oh, I've 'ad some in my day, but then I
wasn't a little bit of a thing like you is. I wish I'd been there, I
wouldn't 'ave stood by an' looked on while my daughter was gettin' the
worst of it; although I'm turned sixty-five, an' gettin' on for
sixty-six, I'd 'ave said to 'er: "If you touch my daughter you'll 'ave
me ter deal with, so just look aht!"'

She brandished her glass, and that reminding her, she refilled it and
Liza's.

'Ah, Liza,' she remarked, 'you're a chip of the old block. Ter see you
settin' there an' 'avin' your little drop, it mikes me feel as if I
was livin' a better life. Yer used ter be rather 'ard on me, Liza,
'cause I took a little drop on Saturday nights. An', mind, I don't sy
I didn't tike a little drop too much sometimes--accidents will occur
even in the best regulated of families, but wot I say is this--it's
good stuff, I say, an' it don't 'urt yer.'

'Buck up, old gal!' said Liza, filling the glasses, 'no 'eel-taps. I
feel like a new woman now. I was thet dahn in the dumps--well, I
shouldn't 'ave cared if I'd been at the bottom of the river, an'
thet's the truth.'

'You don't sy so,' replied her affectionate mother.

'Yus, I do, an' I mean it too, but I don't feel like thet now. You're
right, mother, when you're in tro