, and it
hasn't any thing on its feet, and the old flannel rag can't cover it
half over; won't you let me give it that one you put in the mending
basket? It is so much bigger and nicer than that!" and the tiny arm was
thrown caressingly around the gentle mother's neck, and the little lips
were touching her cheek.

"Blessings on her swate heart!" said Biddy, rising, by her mistress'
permission, to get the blanket. "'Tis never the like of ye'll come to
want, so shure as my name's Biddy Halligan, an' ye so free in your
benivolence. But where's the baby, faith?" said she, as she went down
the steps holding the little girl by the hand.

"Oh! Biddy, what shall I do? she's gone, and now I can't give her the
blanket!" and the disappointed child wiped her eyes upon her pinafore,
and stood still upon the walk, while her nurse looked down the length of
the street.

"Maybe that same is she," said Biddy, "with the brown bonnet upon the
head, as is going round the corner by the the big grocery."

"Oh! yes, that's she," and little May brightened up, and walked as fast
as she could to overtake the poor girl. They reached her just as she
closed the door of the basement after her, and May hung back at first,
half frightened as she looked into the dismal place; but Biddy
encouraged her, so that she just ventured within the door, and handed
the small parcel; then she would go home, for a vague feeling of evil
haunted her timid mind in that dark and lone spot.

Nannie opened the bundle, and her eyes glistened as she saw the great
square of soft flannel with a pretty silken border worked all around it.
"They can't be bad people all of them that live in grand houses, as
father says," thought she, "or they wouldn't have sent me this pretty
thing!" She is so glad to get home before he comes, for now, perhaps,
she can escape a scolding, and, common as cross words are to her, she
shrinks from them. She will go out every day at this hour when it is
pleasant, and then she will not be missed at home. "'Tis so nice to have
that comfortable covering for Winnie, for now she can hide her scanty
apparel, and she will look quite respectable and neat;" for Nannie has
some idea of neatness, and really tries to better the condition of the
family. She learned a great many good ways at the school, and she does
not forget them, although she has not been since baby's birth, and they
will tell greatly upon the whole of her life. There was a time when she
di