y's letter in the other, and in a
loud, earnest whisper, said:

"O Uncle! Cousin Emily is trying to be good. She says so in her letter."

Uncle Morris stooped to imprint a kiss on the upturned lips of the eager
child. Then patting her head gently, he said:

"It is not every sower of good seed that finds his harvest sheaf so
quickly as you have done. Perhaps the Great Husbandman has given my Jessie
hers to encourage her to sow, and sow, and sow again--but Jessie, I have
found your Madge's mother."

"Have you, _truly_?" asked Jessie, feeling her interest suddenly revived
in her _protege_.

"Yes. Come with me to your mother's room and I will tell you all about
it."

This "mother's room" was up-stairs, and up they went. Finding Mrs. Carlton
there with her seamstress, they sat down, and Uncle Morris told his story.
Said he:

"I have seen Mrs. Clifton. She is sober this morning, and is quite a
well-bred, intelligent woman. She has been respectable; was well married
to a reputable man. But foolishly forsaking their quiet country home, they
went to the city in the hope of acquiring property. There her husband,
failing to get work, took to drinking and died. Mrs. Clifton buried him,
and, dreading to go back to her old home because of poverty, tried to
support herself by needle-work. In an evil hour she took to drinking;
first as a stimulant to labor, and then as a cordial to soothe her griefs.
Of course she soon sank very low, and made poor Madge go out to beg. At
last, stung with remorse, she resolved to quit the city, and, seeking work
in the country, become a sober woman again. Filled with this purpose she
travelled as far as Duncanville with her child, when her appetite for
drink came upon her. Leaving Madge at the Four Corners she sought the
tavern. The rest you know. _We_ found the child, and _she_ spent the night
in the lock-up."

"Poor thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Carlton.

"Poor little Madge!" cried Jessie, who very naturally felt more for the
unfortunate child, than for the unhappy, but guilty mother.

"Yes," said Mr. Morris, "but pity alone won't do them much good. The
question is, what shall be done with them?"

"True," rejoined Mrs. Carlton, "but are you sure the woman's story is
true?"

"It agrees with the account Madge gave of herself, so far as the affair of
last evening is concerned. Being true in _one_ thing, I hope it is in all.
She has, however, given me references to her old friends in the country,