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scrutiny and restraint, but are heirs also of pa- rental disgrace and
calumny, from which only long years of patient endurance in paths of

recti- tude can disencumber them.
Mag's new home was soon contaminated by the publicity of her fall;
she had a feeling of degradation oppressing her; but she resolved to be
circumspect, and try to regain in a measure what she had lost. Then
some foul tongue would jest of her shame, and averted looks and cold
greetings disheartened her. She saw she could not bury in forgetfulness
her misdeed, so she resolved to leave her home and seek another in the
place she at first fled from.
Alas, how fearful are we to be first in extend- ing a helping hand to
those who stagger in the mires of infamy; to speak the first words of
hope and warning to those emerging into the sunlight of morality! Who
can tell what numbers, ad- vancing just far enough to hear a cold
welcome and join in the reserved converse of professed reformers,
disappointed, disheartened, have cho- sen to dwell in unclean places,
rather than en- counter these "holier-than-thou" of the great
brotherhood of man!
Such was Mag's experience; and disdaining to ask favor or friendship
from a sneering world, she resolved to shut herself up in a hovel she
had often passed in better days, and which she knew to be untenanted.
She vowed to ask no favors of familiar faces; to die neglected and for-
gotten before she would be dependent on any. Removed from the
village, she was seldom seen except as upon your introduction, gentle
reader, with downcast visage, returning her work to her employer, and
thus providing herself with the means of subsistence. In two years
many hands craved the same avocation; foreigners who cheapened toil
and clamored for a livelihood, competed with her, and she could not
thus sus- tain herself. She was now above no drudgery. Occasionally
old acquaintances called to be fa- vored with help of some kind, which
she was glad to bestow for the sake of the money it would bring her;
but the association with them was such a painful reminder of by-gones,
she re- turned to her hut morose and revengeful, re- fusing all offers of
a better home than she pos- sessed. Thus she lived for years, hugging
her wrongs, but making no effort to escape. She had never known
plenty, scarcely competency; but the present was beyond comparison
with those innocent years when the coronet of virtue was hers.
Every year her melancholy increased, her means diminished. At last no
one seemed to notice her, save a kind-hearted African, who often called

to inquire after her health and to see if she needed any fuel, he having
the responsibility of furnishing that article, and she in return mend- ing
or making garments.
"How much you earn dis week, Mag?" asked he one Saturday evening.
"Little enough, Jim. Two or three days with- out any dinner. I washed
for the Reeds, and did a small job for Mrs. Bellmont; that's all. I shall
starve soon, unless I can get more to do. Folks seem as afraid to come
here as if they expected to get some awful disease. I don't believe there
is a person in the world but would be glad to have me dead and out of
the way."
"No, no, Mag! don't talk so. You shan't starve so long as I have barrels
to hoop. Peter Greene boards me cheap. I'll help you, if nobody else
will."
A tear stood in Mag's faded eye. "I'm glad," she said, with a softer tone
than before, "if there is ONE who isn't glad to see me suffer. I b'lieve
all Singleton wants to see me punished, and feel as if they could tell
when I've been punished long enough. It's a long day ahead they'll set it,
I reckon."
After the usual supply of fuel was prepared, Jim returned home. Full of
pity for Mag, he set about devising measures for her relief. "By golly!"
said he to himself one day--for he had become so absorbed in Mag's
interest that he had fallen into a habit of musing aloud--"By golly! I
wish she'd MARRY me."
"Who?" shouted Pete Greene, suddenly start- ing from an unobserved
corner of the rude shop.
"Where you come from, you sly nigger!" ex- claimed Jim.
"Come, tell me, who is't?" said Pete; "Mag Smith, you want to marry?"
"Git out, Pete! and when you come in dis shop again, let a nigger know
it. Don't steal in like a thief."
Pity and love know little severance. One attends the other. Jim
acknowledged the pres- ence of the former, and his efforts in Mag's
behalf told also of a finer principle.
This