Page:Live and Let Live.djvu/15

Rh us! we may as well come to it first as last. We shall starve or freeze to death here. Won't you stop that sewing? Every stitch of your needle goes through my nerves. You can't earn enough to save us from starvation. Send me to the alms-house—it makes little difference where one dies; and when I am gone you can manage to scramble on with the rest". "No, Richard—no—we have gone through many a dark day together, and we will not separate till it pleases God to part us". Lee drew the sheet over his face. "We have a hard winter before us, and we must take measures accordingly. The first step should be to reduce the family. I am thinking of getting a place for Lucy."

"A place! what sort of a place?" "A service-place."

"Good Heavens! you are not in earnest?"

"I am; and, if you will hear me patiently, you may think me right."

"Never, never—all the talking in the world won't persuade me to degrade Lucy to a servant."

Mrs. Lee thought of the degradation to which her husband's vice had reduced them, and she resolutely proceeded.

"We must have relief, and that immediately. I will not subject my children to being depraved by dependance on charity while they have the means of exertion—honest labour is never degrading."

"Certainly not to those who are used to it."

"Nor to those that need it, dear husband, as we do. It does not startle or frighten me in the least. I have been through all gradations from perfect competency to our present suffering state, and each