woman.

Presently she rose, her supper still unfinished, and took from a shelf,
from among a medley of herbs and medicine bottles, a penny bottle of ink
with a pen sticking in it. Searching in a drawer of the round table she
found a large envelope on which was written, "Giant pennyworth of note."
She took from it one of the thin bluish sheets of paper, and sitting at
the table, her sun-bonnet making a grotesque shadow behind her, she
began to write. She wrote with little hesitation, urged by the strength
of some feeling. Her handwriting was large and she made long loops to
her g's.

"DEAR SIR,--Though you passed by my cottage yesterday you are so
unknown to me by sight, that I have only just discovered who it
was that was brought to such a pitiable condition before me.
First, sir, let me describe to you what a sight I saw before me,
when, hearing a great plunging and shouting in the road, I came
out from the shippon to see what was the matter.

"I saw, sir, a strong, well-looking, well-dressed young man of
twenty-six lying in the mud of the road, his foot in one stirrup of
his horse, he, mad with drink cursing, first the poor horse (a very
quiet stallion), then the road (a very easy one) and last, the
Almighty God of love. The horse, dragged everywhere by the efforts
of the young man to gain a footing, was rewarded for its patience
when its master at last, by my help, regained his feet, by severe
kicks in the belly, and I, a poor woman, was abused and called evil
names.

"Sir! if instead of cursing the good-tempered beast or the God of