We hoped she would
love us, and obey us, and thus repay. But it seems she prefers to be
ungrateful and disobedient. Good by."
You open the door and go out. It is cold and windy. Shivering with
the cold, and without money, you are at once a beggar, and must
perish in the streets, unless some one takes pity on you.
You go, perhaps, to the house of a friend, and ask if they will allow
you to live with them.
They at once reply, "We have so many children of our own, that we
cannot afford to take you, unless you will pay for your board and
clothing."
You go again out into the street, cold, hungry, and friendless. The
darkness of the night is coming on; you have no money to purchase a
supper, or night's lodging. Unless you can get some employment, or
find some one who will pity you, you must lie down upon the hard
ground, and perish with hunger and with cold.
Perhaps some benevolent man sees you as he is going home in the
evening, and takes you to the overseers of the poor, and says, "Here
is a little vagrant girl I found in the streets. We must send the poor
little thing to the poor house, or she will starve to death."
You are carried to the poor house. There you had a very different home
from your father's. You are dressed in the coarsest garments. You have
the meanest food, and are compelled to be obedient, and to do the most
servile work.
Now, suppose, while you are in the poor house, some kind gentleman and
lady should come and say, "We will take this little girl, and give
her food and clothes for nothing.
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