character of actual cleanliness and apparent want of care which poverty
superinduces upon the most strenuous efforts of industry. The floor
was beginning to break up into holes; tables and chairs were crazy; the
dresser, though clean, had a cold, hungry, unfurnished look; and, what
was unquestionably the worst symptom of all, the inside of the chimney
brace, where formerly the sides and flitches of deep, fat bacon, grey
with salt, were arrayed in goodly rows, now presented nothing but the
bare and dust-covered hooks, from which they had depended in happier
times. About a dozen of herrings hung at one side of a worn salt-box,
and at the other a string of onions that was nearly Stripped, both
constituting the principal kitchen, varied, perhaps, with a little
buttermilk,--which Sullivan's family were then able to afford themselves
with their potatoes.

We cannot close our description here, however; for sorry we are to
say, that the severe traces of poverty were as visible upon the inmates
themselves as upon the house and its furniture. Sullivan's family
consisted of his eldest daughter, aged nineteen, two growing boys, the
eldest about sixteen, and several younger children besides. These last
were actually ragged--all of them were scantily and poorly clothed; and
if any additional proof were wanting that poverty, in one of its most
trying shapes, had come among them, it was to be found in their pale,
emaciated features, and in that languid look of care and depression,
which any diminution in the natural quantity of food for any length of
time uniformly impresses upon the countenance. In fact, the whole group
had a sickly and wo-worn appearance, as was evident from the unnatural
dejection of the young, who, instead of exhibiting the cheerfulness
and animation of youth, now moped about without gayety, sat brooding in
corners, or struggled for a warm place nearest to the dull and cheerless
fire.