small, they say;
On the damp ground I must now lay my head;
Father's a drunkard and mother is dead.

"'We were so happy till father drank rum,
Then all our sorrow and trouble begun;
Mother grew pale and wept every day,
Baby and I were too hungry to play;
Slowly they faded till one summer night
Found their dead faces all silent and white;
Then with big tears slowly dropping I said,
"Father's a drunkard and mother is dead."

"'Oh! If the temperance men only could find
Poor, wretched father and talk very kind;
If they would stop him from drinking, then
I should be so very happy again.
Is it too late, temperance men? Please try
Or poor little Bessie must soon starve and die!
All day long I've been begging for bread,--
Father's a drunkard and mother is dead.'

"The game of billiards was left unfinished, the cards thrown aside and
the unemptied glass remained on the counter; all had pressed near, some
with pity-beaming eyes, entranced with the musical voice and beauty of
the child, who seemed better fitted to be with angels above than in
such a place.

"The scene I shall never forget to my dying day, and the sweet cadence
of her musical voice still rings in my ears, and every word of the song
as it dropped from her lips sank deep into the hearts of those gathered
around her.

"With her golden hair falling carelessly around her little shoulders,
and looking so trustingly and confidingly upon the gentlemen around
her, her beautiful eyes illuminated with a light that seemed not of
this earth, she formed a picture of purity and innocence worthy the
genius of a poet or painter.

"At the close of the song many were weeping; men who had not shed a
tear for years, now wept like children. One young man who had resisted
with scorn the pleadings of a loving mother and the entreaties of
friends to strive to lead a better life, to desist from a course that
was wasting his fortune and ruining his health, now approached the
child, and taking both hands in his, while tears streamed down his
cheeks, exclaimed with deep emotion:

"'God bless you, my little angel! You have saved me from ruin and
disgrace, from poverty and a drunkard's grave. If there are angels on
earth, you are one! God bless you! God bless you! and putting a bill
into the hands of the mother said, 'Please accept this trifle as a
token of my regard and esteem, for your little girl has done m