Mrs.Gaston, after preparing her boy to pass from under her roof and enter alone upon life's hard pilgrimage, sat down to her work with an overburdened heart.

At one moment she would repent of what she had done, and half resolve to say "No," when the man came for her child.

But an unanswerable argument against this were the coarse shirts in her hands, for which she was to receive only _seven cents a-piece!_ At last a rough voice was heard below, and then a heavy foot upon the stairs, every tread of which seemed to the mother to be upon her heart.

Little Henry arose and looked frightened as a man entered, saying as he came in-- "Ah, yes! This is the place, I see.

Well, ma'am, is your little boy ready ?" "He is, sir," replied Mrs.Gaston, almost inaudibly, rising and handing the stranger a chair.