"That's the way people get to look who live in poorhouses," she said.

It was this memory that was troubling the Little Colonel now.

"Oh, Fritz!" she whispered, with the tears running down her cheeks, "I
can't beah to think of my pretty mothah goin' there. That woman's
eyes were all red, an' her hair was jus' awful. She was so bony an'
stahved-lookin'. It would jus' kill poah Papa Jack to lie on straw an'
eat out of a tin pan. I know it would!"

When Mom Beck opened the door, hunting her, the room was so dark that
she would have gone away if the dog had not come running out from under
the piano.

"You heah, too, chile?" she asked, in surprise. "I have to go down now
an' see if I can get Judy to come help to-morrow. Do you think you can
undress yo'self to-night?"

"Of co'se," answered the Little Colonel. Mom Beck was in such a hurry to
be off that she did not notice the tremble in the voice that answered
her.

"Well, the can'le is lit in yo' room. So run along now like a nice
little lady, an' don't bothah yo' mamma. She got her hands full
already."

"All right," answered the child.

A quarter of an hour later she stood in her little white nightgown with