widow without any means of livelihood, as she said, and that peasant
in bast shoes, who told me that he had nothing to eat that day. But
on questioning them, it appeared that none of these people were in
special want, and that, in order to help them, it would be necessary
to become well acquainted with them.

When I proposed to the woman whose husband had abandoned her, to
place her children in an asylum, she became confused, fell into
thought, thanked me effusively, but evidently did not wish to do so;
she would have preferred pecuniary assistance. The eldest girl
helped her in her washing, and the younger took care of the little
boy. The old woman begged earnestly to be taken to the hospital, but
on examining her nook I found that the old woman was not particularly
poor. She had a chest full of effects, a teapot with a tin spout,
two cups, and caramel boxes filled with tea and sugar. She knitted
stockings and gloves, and received monthly aid from some benevolent
lady. And it was evident that what the peasant needed was not so
much food as drink, and that whatever might be given him would find
its way to the dram-shop. In these quarters, therefore, there were
none of the sort of people whom I could render happy by a present of
money. But there were poor people who appeared to me to be of a
doubtful character. I noted down the old woman, the woman with the
children, and the peasant, and decided that they must be seen to; but
later on, as I was occupied with the peculiarly unfortunate whom I
expected to find in this house, I made up my mind that there must be
some order in the aid which we should bestow; first came the most
wretched, and then this kind. But in the next quarters, and in the
next after that, it was the same story, all the people had to be
narrowly investigated before they could be helped. But unfortunates
of the sort whom a gift of money would convert from unfortunate into