will only be to get mother to let go and leave off." What I have seen
the little spirit bear--for me--without crying out!

Yet in other respects her mother took great care of her. Her clothes
were always clean and neat, and her mother was never tired of working at
'em. Such is the inconsistency in things. Our being down in the marsh
country in unhealthy weather, I consider the cause of Sophy's taking bad
low fever; but however she took it, once she got it she turned away from
her mother for evermore, and nothing would persuade her to be touched by
her mother's hand. She would shiver and say, "No, no, no," when it was
offered at, and would hide her face on my shoulder, and hold me tighter
round the neck.

The Cheap Jack business had been worse than ever I had known it, what
with one thing and what with another (and not least with railroads, which
will cut it all to pieces, I expect, at last), and I was run dry of
money. For which reason, one night at that period of little Sophy's
being so bad, either we must have come to a dead-lock for victuals and
drink, or I must have pitched the cart as I did.

I couldn't get the dear child to lie down or leave go of me, and indeed I
hadn't the heart to try, so I stepped out on the footboard with her
holding round my neck. They all set up a laugh when they see us, and one
chuckle-headed Joskin (that I hated for it) made the bidding, "Tuppence
for her!"

"Now, you country boobies," says I, feeling as if my heart was a heavy
weight at the end of a broken sashline, "I give you notice that I am a
going to charm the money out of your pockets, and to give you so much
more than your money's worth that you'll only persuade yourselves to draw