er. Day after
day, from morning till night, and often till the next day began, she
toiled and toiled, stooping over her work, sewing, sewing, hour
after hour, and day after day, stooping all the time, till her eyes
lost their brightness, her step all its elasticity, till her
shoulders grew round, and her health failed.

O, had those for whom she labored, for her small day's wages, but
observed how the lamp of life was gradually going out, they would
not have allowed her so to work without any respite; they would have
made her take better care of her own health; they would have sent
her home early; they would not have allowed her to work thirteen or
fourteen hours a day in their service.

There was one family in which she worked where the master and
mistress insisted that at one o'clock Jane should lay aside her
work, and walk till two, when they dined. Then they insisted upon
her dining at their own table, and tried to make her meal a social
and pleasant one.

O, these were white days for poor Jane. Could I not tell when she
was going to work in this family by the way she threw me over her
shoulders? Did I not feel her gentle heart beating with unwonted
warmth as she came home from this family before eight o'clock,
accompanied by the truly good man of the house or some trusty
person? When she hung me up in her small bed room, did I not notice
her grateful, happy smile? She felt that she was recognized by these
good people as a sister and friend, and that the words which we hear
at church and read in the Bible, "All men are brethren," were not
mere words with them.

These evenings she would make her small fire, and sometimes indulge
herself in reading a little while; she would go to bed early, and
did not look so pale in the morning.

Had all the customers of cousin Jane been as kind and considerate as
these good people were, she might have lived; and I should, perhaps,
have continued in her possession; but life was too hard for her,--she
struggled with it for many years, and then her sweet spirit turned
wearily away from it; she grew weaker and weaker, the color grew
brighter and brighter on her cheek, and the light in her eye; she
looked like a spirit; and, ere long, she was one.

My first owner came, as soon as she heard how ill Jane was, and took
her home to this house in the country. Here our good mistress nursed
her poor cousin, and made the last days as happy as she could; but
Jane was weary of this life,