could spare me a bite to eat. Bless her kind heart, she gave me a big
bowl full of bread and milk, and warmed some stew, and helped me make
Jack clean and comfortable, but she had no place for me to sleep, which
she told me sorrowfully. Her family was large, and she did not have a
bit of extra bedding, besides she was poor. I was feeling better now
and more cheerful. My! 'tis wonderful what a good meal can do for you
when you're hungry, isn't it? I thanked her kindly and told her I'd
soon find friends; then went out on the street and began to watch the
faces. At last I stepped up to an elderly laboring man, told him I had
lost my way, was broke, a stranger, and a widow, and asked him if he
could direct me to a respectable lodging-house, which he did (bless his
kind heart!) and paid the woman for a night's lodging, she asking no
questions; and soon I was in a clean little bed with my Jack. I don't
think my head had hardly touched the pillow when I was fast asleep, all
of my troubles forgotten.

"Morning came all too soon. And now what was I to do? I dressed, then
made baby as comfortable as I could under the circumstances, went down
the stairs, meeting no one as I passed out of the house into the
street. Pretty soon I'd made up my mind. I'd walk down to Meigg's wharf
(not far away) and with my darling would drop quietly off the end of it
into the bay; and I was soon looking into the nice quiet water, just
about to fall in when I heard a voice, for sure I did, Mother Roberts,
saying, 'Don't Mary.' Maybe you don't think I was scared as I looked
all around and could see no one nearer than a block and a half away,
and that was a man piling up some lumber on a wagon; besides, the voice
I heard was a woman's, not a man's. I began to back away from the
water, wondering if I'd heard an angel speak....

"Yes; I admit I am naturally superstitious, but don't you think in a