e else. She was also a capital
nurse, and in this position rendered herself very valuable in many
households, and for such services she was even more generously
remunerated; so that somehow she managed to keep her head above water
while her children were small, and feed, clothe, and send them to school
as they grew older.

Her children were, of course, the one source of consolation left to the
poor widow, and many a long evening's work was both shortened and
lightened by golden dreams of their future prosperity and success.

When her eldest boy Eric was twelve, and when Alfred, the second child,
was only ten, a friend made interest with Mr. Sanderson, superintendent
of the bookbindery, auxiliary to the Squantown Paper Mills, to give the
two boys steady employment, and since that time, four years ago, their
earnings, small but certain, had greatly helped in the family expenses.
Both were noble, manly fellows, with, as yet, no bad habits. They
brought their mother all that they earned, and were quite content to
pass their evenings with her and their little sister. Katie, who was now
thirteen, had always attended the public school in the village, of
course helping her mother with the housework and sewing. She was a
delicate little creature, small for her years, but bright and
intelligent, a general favorite with the village children as well as
with her Sunday-school teacher, Miss Etta Mountjoy, who was not so
very many years older than herself.

Katie was a very lady-like looking girl, and did not seem fitted to do
very hard work, nor to mix among rough people, but she was an
independent little thing who knew very well how poor her mother was and
how hard both she and her brothers had to work. She knew that her
breakfasts, dinners, and suppers cost something, and that it took money
to buy the good shoes and neat, whole dresses in which her mother always
kept her dressed, and she resolved in her own wise little head to find
some way of contributing to the family stock. It was some time before
she saw her way clear to do this, but at last she took counsel of a
school-fellow whose sister worked in the folding-room of the Squantown
Paper Mills and found that even a young girl might earn considerable in
this way. So, without telling any one at home of her plans, she, one
evening, presented herself before Mr. Sanderson and requested to be
taken into the bindery.

"What can you do, little puss?" said this gentleman, quite sur