give the garment a beautiful and workmanlike appearance. The
stitches did not impress themselves along the edges with the
accuracy that her eye told her was required, and she was troubled to
find that, be as careful as she would, the pure white fabric grew
soiled beneath her fingers. Mary, to whom she frequently submitted
the work, tried to encourage her; but her eyes were not deceived.

It was after dark when Ellen finished the garment. She was weary and
faint; for she had taken no food since morning, and had been bending
over her work, with very little intermission, the whole day; and she
had no hope of receiving any thing more to do, for Mr. Lawson, she
was sure, would not be pleased with the way the vest was made. But,
want of every thing, and particularly food for herself and sister,
made the sum of seventy-five cents, to be received for the garment,
a little treasure in her eyes; and she hurried off with the vest the
moment it was finished.

"I will bring home a little tea, sister," she said, as she was about
leaving; "I am sure a cup of tea will do you good; and I feel as if
it would revive and strengthen me."

Mary looked at Ellen with a tender, pitying expression, while her
large bright eyes shone glassy in the dim rays sent forth by a poor
lamp; but she did not reply. She had a gnawing in her stomach, that
made her feel faint, and a most earnest craving for nourishing and
even stimulating food, the consequence of long abstinence as well as
from the peculiarity of her disease. But she did not breathe a word
of this to Ellen, who would, she knew, expend for her every cent of
the money she was about to receive, if she was aware of the morbid
appetite from which she was suffering.