poorly; I find it hard to go without my tea, but it is a luxury I
have been obliged latterly to forego."

"But could you not get tea on credit, from the grocer?" said the
gentleman.

"Oh! yes, I believe so; but there would be no use in getting
credit;" said Mrs. Newton, "for I am not certain of being better able
to pay next week than I am this week; and when I have not the money
to pay for what I wish to get, it is better to do without it, than to
add to one's anxieties by running in debt. Do you not think so, sir?"

"Ma'am," said the old gentleman, sitting down, and resting his large
silver-topped stick between his knees, "it is of very little
consequence what I think; but if you wish to know this, I will tell
you that I think very well both of you and your little girl, who, as
I have heard, for I have made inquiries about you both, is a
dependant on your bounty. You have trained her up well, though I
wouldn't praise the child to her face; and so take as much tea as you
like till you hear from me again, and your grocer need be in no
trouble about his bill."

So after the fat gentleman had made this rather bluff, but honest-
hearted speech, and poor Mrs. Newton had wept, and thanked him in
language that sounded more polite, the good old gentleman told her
his whole history.

He began the world very poor, and without relations able to assist
him; he was at last taken into the employment of a young merchant in
the city; he had a turn for business, and having been able to render