and Susan asked her mother to give Tommy his supper, as
she had something to say to her. The mother, who saw something
particular was the matter, hurried the child to bed, while I sat on a
chair near the door sick at my very heart. No sooner had her brother
left the room than Susan told of the discovery of the plums, with many
additions of her own. Mrs. Davis was in such a passion that she could
scarcely speak for two or three minutes; she seized me by the arm, and
shook me violently.

'I will put a stop to this,' said she as soon as she had recovered her
breath. 'You shall not stay here to be the ruin of my children, you
ungrateful creature. Don't we feed you and clothe you? Don't you have
all the children's old clothes, and don't you mend them up and make them
look so smart that you look as well dressed as they do, though their
clothes are new and yours are old? Oh, you ungrateful creature. You
would ruin us all for our kindness to you.'

She then ran over the affair of the peaches, and of my refusing to take
the money at the market, reproaching me at every sentence, till she
increased her anger to such degree that she seemed to lose her reason,
and, again seizing me by the arm, she said she would give me cause to
repent of my ingratitude to the latest moment of my life, when at the
instant I expected to be dashed to the ground, to her great dismay, and
to my great relief, an inner door opened, and her husband entered the
room.

'Stop, mistress,' said he, 'do not dare to hurt that child. I came in by
the wash-house, and have heard all Suke's story, and have heard who
stole the peaches. Little did I think, when there was such a piece of
work about them, that my own children were the thieves, and little did I
think, when Suke was so pleased at going to market, that it was because
she was to go shares with a parcel of thieves in robbing her master.'

'Now, John,' said his wife, 'how can you talk so? What harm is there in
the children taking a few pence apiece? They have more trouble when they
go to town, and they ought to be paid for it. You know that all the
workpeople make a market-penny.'

'I know no such thing,' replied her husband. 'They are allowed money for
refreshment when they go to town, and if they take more than the master
allows I say that they cheat him, but I'll put a stop to Suke's tricks,
for she shall not go to town any more. I shall speak to Mr. Joseph about
that.'

'Why, surely you are not goi