Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-11-26

were being exhausted, and she was at length
forced to pawn all the ornaments and relics
oi better times. She was reduced finally
to living in small attic room of a tene-
hent house. sleeping on some straw in one
corner. Hour after hour through the weary
day her little feet were traversng the streets ,as
she followed advertisements and looked for a
chance to work.
AT last she reached the point in which
every available means had been sacrificed,
every penny spent and hunger stared her in
the face. She describes her feelings most
touchingly. One day she could get through
quite comfortably without anything to eat.
the second, she says she crouched herself in
her bed-''and. do you know, sir, what
found the best to stop hunger? Why, |
ardnk iro'er and then prayed, and somehow
always lclt better and stronger after it -
Inc third day, when it seemed as though
Nic could not hold out much longer, she
would go falntly down stairs to q woman she
KNEW In one OF the lower rooms, and this wo-
man would offer her something to cat, which
she would take carelcesly. no one ever sus-
pecting that the poor creature was being
saved from starvation. In this mode of life
she grew so weak she she could scarcely
walk, and as thin, she says, as any skeleton.
She was attacked, too, with terrible head
aches, and some days, she is sure. she was
deiIribus, Tor she now remembers how she
s,emcd sometimes to sec angels and spirits in
the little room bringing her food
once or twice she determined to beg.
though she felt as if she would rather die
ana she went into IA store, and said, gusping-
~, "she was hungry The people were
very KIND, and sat her in a chair, and gave
her food, and once, she rccollects, cup of
tea. Then, as she lay on her heap of straw,
thinking of the dear old English home and
the days that were gone, she would some
tunes say, "What have ] done to deserve
this? Why should God pick me out to make
cd?"
One lay she had gone down into the lower
room, and sat there weak and despairing,
when gentleman entered whom she des
cribes as very grand and wealthy in his ap-
pearance. IL spoke to her kindly; said he
mad watched her g. in and out. and said she
must be III misfortune; that he had 50 much
admired hcr-yes, and loved her She an
swered, gasping with weakness, "Why do
you come here to insult Inc because | am
poor?' Then, as she describes it, he re-
piled that he did not mean to insult her,
that he truly loved her-and in various
phrases he offered to her to live in Il splendid
nome with him, but not as his wife. The
poor girl, crouchcd down with her head in
her hands, confesses that for a moment the
thought crossed her mind-What if she
should do this? NJ one will know it, Here
Is comfort and homc-an escape at length
and on the other side, a long, weary strug-
gle and starvation. But in the midst of this
LIA q l.Cl. = Il.
seemed to come up before her figure of her
mother-she saw the face and the warning
gesture almost as distinctly as she ever saw
any one. She seemed to call her away
and then she thought of all she had ever
told her of Heaven and of God, and she start
cd up and said, with sobs and gasps-one
may he sure eloquently for she tells the story
now with eyes flowing with tears and with
tones that thrill the heart; Il know am
Poor-l have nothins-l have no home and
no 1rlends-l am starving; but if you should
give me all the money of New York, heaped
ten times over, | would not do this thing
why do you come here to tempt me and in
suit me because am poor - and she almost
Tell down gasping, but she says she saw the
man start back with face CHASTITY pale, say
ing. My God What sin you have saved
me froin.'
That day She heard accidentally Of the
society to help children, and resolved to go
there and try for last chance If she failed
there the only thing left for her seemed to be
Seil-deStructiun doath We know the
happy result
The simple truthfulness ANA pathos of this
girls story cannot in any way he respresen-
ted. OF all heroic scenes which the upper
Powers ever look upon in this world, what
can surpass that where this poor, weak,
starving girl, deserted OF men and seemingly
almost abandoned by God, spurns from her
the greatest OF all temptations, and deibcr-
atcly chooses starvation rather than dishonor
or wrong Pcrchancc among those in this
day who snccr ut or bargain for woman 5 vir-
! tue this little story out of the real life of
New rk may show what priceless pearl
this virtue is, that tnc lonely, furnished child
could choose the slew pangs of famine rather
than lose it,