no sympathy for the poor
wretch, denied every comfort required by her situation.

"The day my mother, died, the ninth after my birth, I was consigned to
the care of the cheapest nurse my father could find; who suckled her own
child at the same time, and lodged as many more as she could get, in two
cellar-like apartments.

"Poverty, and the habit of seeing children die off her hands, had so
hardened her heart, that the office of a mother did not awaken the
tenderness of a woman; nor were the feminine caresses which seem a part
of the rearing of a child, ever bestowed on me. The chicken has a wing
to shelter under; but I had no bosom to nestle in, no kindred warmth to
foster me. Left in dirt, to cry with cold and hunger till I was weary,
and sleep without ever being prepared by exercise, or lulled by kindness
to rest; could I be expected to become any thing but a weak and rickety
babe? Still, in spite of neglect, I continued to exist, to learn to
curse existence, [her countenance grew ferocious as she spoke,] and
the treatment that rendered me miserable, seemed to sharpen my wits.
Confined then in a damp hovel, to rock the cradle of the succeeding
tribe, I looked like a little old woman, or a hag shrivelling into
nothing. The furrows of reflection and care contracted the youthful
cheek, and gave a sort of supernatural wildness to the ever watchful
eye. During this period, my father had married another fellow-servant,
who loved him less, and knew better how to manage his passion, than my
mother. She likewise proving with child, they agreed to keep a shop: my
step-mother, if, being an illegitimate offspring, I may venture thus
to characterize her, having obtained a sum of a rich relation, for that
purpose.

"Soon after her lying-in, she prevailed on my father to take me home, to
save the expense of maintaining me, and of hiring a girl to assist
her in the care of the child. I was young, it was true, but appeared a
knowing little thing, and might be made handy. Accordingly I was brought
to her house; but not to a home--for a home I never knew. Of this
child, a daughter, she was extravagantly fond; and it was a part of
my employment, to assist to spoil her, by humouring all her whims, and
bearing all her caprices. Feeling her own consequence, before she could
speak, she had learned the art of tormenting me, and if I ever dared to
resist, I received blows, laid on with no compunctious hand, or was sent
to bed dinnerless, as