for three-pence to procure him a night's rest. We peeped into several
other such dwellings, but the same story was repeated in each. In all
we were struck with the kind reception we met with, evidently due in
part to the presence of our companion, who, although a lady, feels
called of God to labour among these dens of misery, where there is so
much to do and _so few to do it_, and to the fact that we lent a
kindly ear to their tale of distress, and did what lay in our power
to relieve the immediate pressure of the very destitute. But, above
all, we were thankful to meet with such a spirit of hearing, and a
ready attention when Jesus was lifted up as the Saviour of sinners.

"We now entered a court to visit a poor woman whose husband had died
suddenly the week before. It was between nine and ten, and we found
the widow had been washing, the clothes hanging from lines in the
room. Her two children, aged nine and eleven, were busily employed in
matchbox-making.

"The rapidity and neatness of these little human machines were truly
most remarkable; the number of boxes made in a day, from half-past
six in the morning to ten at night, was something fabulous. The floor
of the room was covered with boxes; they earned a shilling each a
day; often days passed when they were unable to get work to do. Poor
children! thin and wan-looking, life seemed a terribly serious thing
to them, their days spent in incessant toil when work was plentiful,
their nights--well, they had a bedstead with a bundle of dirty rags
for a bed, but not a stitch of bedclothes; the clothes the children
wore were their only covering at night.

"In another court we found a silk-weaver hard at work,--from eight
in the morning to eleven at night. This man, a Christian, had