Year: 1875

On Christmas eve, 1871, two poor


girls, averaging between twenty and


twenty-five years Of age, quilted


large biscuit manufactOry in Roth


erhithe, in which they were employ.


ed, and continued their way west


ward towards the Borough, convers.


ing as they went in what manner


they should spend the next day.


One Of them, who lived in Lambeth,


said 10 the other:


"At our house we intend to have


a regular .joliincatlOn, anu L mean


to spend eighteen pence of the mon


ey Eve earned during the week in


buying q bottle of good rum, to


give my father and mother treat


of punch. And very happy we


shall be together, for my brother


Tom has just come home from sea,


and Martha has got holiday for


three days from the shop she works


at in Piccadilly. What do you in


tend doing, Trottie ?--ain't you 60


ing to give your people treat ?"


Trottie, a pretty brunette, repli-
ed that she was rather puzzled what
to do. "The fact is," she said,
"wc're in a great deal of trouble at
home. Father, who works i'll the
docks, has been thrown out of en-
ployment through the continuance
of the east wind, which keeps the
shipping from coming up the chan
mel, and poor John, my brother,
who worked in the silk factory, has
SO sprained his leg that it is proba-
ble he will not be able to 60 to work
again for some weeks to come. If
it had not been for what l have
earned, and mother picking up
something at umbrella making, we
should be pretty we'll starved. AS
it is the two little ones, Kate and
Johnny, are getting so pale and
thin for want of nOuriShment, it
quite goes to my heart to see them.
Still, l should like to give poor IA
ther a treat if could, for he's very
low-spirited, and it would cheer him
up little, and do him good"


"You'd better do So" said her
companion "and depend upon it,
it won't be money thrown away. It's
only fair a daughter should think
of her father and mothers COM
forts"


By this time the two girls had
arrived at the corner of Tooley
street, in the Borough, and after a
very affectionate parting, each wish
ing the other the compliments of
the season, the one hurried south
ward to her home in Lambath, and
Trottie continued her way onwards
over London bridge towards the
Commercial road, where, in by
street, her parents resided, think.
ing as she went over the cOnyerSa-
tion she had with her friend.


The poor girl was in a state of
She much wished to
purchase the rum, butishe had heard
her father say it was his intention
to take the pledge. Ho knew, he
said, several men who worked in
the docks who had done so, and
their report was that not only could
they perform their work fully us
well and with as little incOnveni-
ence 10 themselves as when taking
three or four pints of beer during
the day, but, in point of fact, found
them in better health than before ;
they rose freshcr in the morning,
and went to bed less fatigued in the
evening; also that their wives and
families were made the more COM
on account of the money
economical from the public house.
Still, Trottie argued, her father and
mother had not yet taken the pledge,
and therefore she would not be
them to break it. They
could have happy evening to-
and then become teeto-
tallers, if they pleased, the next
morning. And then it occurred to
her that, suppose they did not,
would she, in any manner, have
made herself answerable in keep
ing them from their good resolu-
ton 7 Other thoughts then came
into her head. The family larder
was at very low ebb, and would it
not be better to give her mother the
money she had earned, to expend
in good nOurishing food for the fam
lly instead of drink +?


Poor TrOttie continued OnwardS
i'm state of lamentable incertitude.
At last she came to conclusion.