with help for all, kind and sympathetic, and to
strive by her good deeds to gain the love of her fellow-creatures.

A joyous family had lived in the little village school-house; though
they had poverty and want to fight against, these three happy human
beings did not consider this a misfortune, but a necessary evil of life.
They loved each other, and when the parents looked upon the lovely, rosy
countenance of their only child, they did not perceive that their bread
was hard and heavy, they did not miss the butter and cheese without
which the rich villagers seldom took a meal. And when, on Sundays, Anna
went with her parents to church, in the faded red skirt, neat white
body, and black bodice, which had been her mother's wedding-dress,
she heard the boys whisper amongst themselves about her beauty and
sweetness, and casting her eyes down with timid blushes she did not
perceive the jeering smiles of the other girls who, though not as
pretty, were proud that they were richer and better dressed than the
school-teacher's daughter.

But Death, in his inexorable manner, had disturbed this modest
happiness. In a year he took the schoolmaster Detzloff and his wife from
the little house which, to any one else, would have appeared a pitiful
hut, but which, to them, seemed a paradise. In one year Anna became an
orphan; she was entirely alone in the world, and, after she had given to
her dear departed ones the tribute of her sorrows and tears, she had to
arouse herself and create a new future. After death only, the villagers
became aware of the great worth of the departed, they now admitted to
the full the school-teacher's merits, and were anxious to pay to the
daughter the debt owing to the father. As he had died partly from
starvation, sorrow, and work, they wished to prove themselves generous
to his daughter, and preserve her from the want and misery which had
caused the death of her parents.

But Anna Sophia would be dependent on no one. To those who came in the
name of the villagers to notify her that she would receive from them a
monthly allowance, she showed her able hands, her brown, muscular arms,
and, raising her sparkling eyes proudly to the new school-teacher, she
said, "From these alone will I receive help; they shall give me food and
clothing; on them alone will I be dependent."

She then went to seek work. The rich burgher of the village would gladly
have taken so smart and industrious a girl into his house and p