"Yes, it does," so the right foot was presented; one glance was enough! "That will do; come along for three pairs of boots." They returned home, the boys rejoicing in their new boots, and their feeble old aunt tolerating hers for the sake of her boys.

Dear, brave, self-denying, indomitable old maid.

She had visited the fatherless in their afflictions, she had toiled unceasingly for six long years, she had taken willingly upon her weak shoulders a heavy burden; a burden that, alas! many strong men are only too willing to cast upon others.
She had well earned her pair of boots, and sincerely do I hope that when her poor feet get accustomed to their circumscribed area, and the pressure of well-made boots has become comforting, that she will derive pleasure from them, even though they represent "the first charity that I have ever received." But is it not wonderful, this marvellous self-denial of the very poor! Other spheres of life doubtless produce many noble lives and heroic characters, but was ever a braver deed done than this feeble and weary old maid did?
And it was all so natural, so commonplace, so very matter-of-fact, for when I spoke warmly of her deed she said very simply, "Well, what else could I do!" And in the underworld, amidst the dirt and squalor, the poverty, the high rents, and the poor, poor earnings of poor, poor women, there are plenty like her.
God grant that when the lads can work they will lighten her burdens and cheer her heart by working for her who had worked so hard for them.
Listen also to the story of the blouse-makers disclosed to the upper world by the Press.
"A pathetic story of poverty was told to the Hackney coroner, who held an inquiry into the death of Emily Langes, 59, a blouse-maker of Graham Road, Dalston.

Death was due to starvation.
"Annie Marie, an aged sister, said they had both been in great poverty for a very long time.

They had worked at blouse-making as long as they could, but that work had fallen off so much that really all they had got to live on was by selling off their home.
"They had not enough to live on, and had to pay four shillings and sixpence rent.
"The coroner: 'Selling your home will soon come to an end.