582 



HOUSEWIFE S DEPARTMENT. 



viving child often gave iier great pain. He ex- 

 hibited strong indications of inheriting the in- 

 sanity of his grandmother, having at limes an 

 ungovernable wildness of manner ; yet, when 

 not under excitement, he was an amiable, liind, 

 and obedient boy. 



When Catherine worked in the nail factory, 

 she formed a friendship with another woman 

 who also worked there. This poor creature 

 afterward became blind and helpless. She had 

 for some time previously been greatly disabled, 

 and Catherine had never failed to do what she 

 could for her. But now she took her to her own 

 house, and for seven years supported her en- 

 tirely. She carried her up-stairs at night, and 

 brought her down in the morning. At length, 

 when her son became so ill that she could not 

 leave him, and her means of support were 

 wholly unequal to the increased expense, she 

 sent her blind friend to the work-house ; yet her 

 interest in the poor sulTerer never declined. — 

 Her care for her was like that of a mother for a 

 child. She never omitted once a week to send 

 her a little tea and sugar, that she might not be 

 made uncomfortable by the want of these ac- 

 customed gratifications. It happened that this 

 poor blind woman had a son in the work house 

 who was a cripple, and nearly an idiot. The 

 child was dear to his mother ; and when she 

 took her tea she gave him a pait of it. This be- 

 came one of his highest gratifications ; and after 

 the death of his mother, he was greatly distress- 

 ed by the loss of this indulgence. Catherine, 

 therefore, promised him that while she lived she 

 would bring him tea and sugar, as she had 

 brought them to his mother ; and she kept her 

 word. On one occasion a friend called upon 

 Catherine, and found an old woman with hef 

 who had a number of small parcels in her hand. 

 On noticing these parcels, she informed the 

 visitor that they contained a little tea, sugar, 

 and snuff, and that they were for a woman in 

 the work-house nearly a hundred years old. — 

 "She knew my parents," said Catherine, "and 

 I dare say assisted my mother when she need- 

 ed ; so it is just a little acknowledgment. 

 There are other old persons there to whom I 

 would be glad to send something, if I had the 

 means." 



After Catherine left the nail factory, she sup- 

 ported her family by mangling, a benevolent 

 gentleman in the neighborhood, who was struck 

 with her character, having assisted her to pur- 

 chase a mangle at a sale of effects. By means 

 of it and a little charring work she lived for 

 several years, till her mother died, when she 

 had no longer an inducement to remain in the 

 place ; and .she removed with her only surviv- 

 ing son to Liverpool, where she was fortunate 

 in getting him some small employment suited 

 to his infirmities. She took her mangle with her, 

 and therefore we have now to follow her to one 

 of the humblest dwellings in a back street of 

 that large town. Here she labored, struggled to 

 keep up a good name, and to do all the good 

 she could do within her sphere. On one occa- 

 sion a poor woman, a Mrs. O'Brien, came into 

 the neighborhood to look for lodgings, but could 

 nowhere obtain a room. "She must not die in 

 the street," said Catherine. Yet what was to 

 be done ? Catherine lost no time in answering 

 this question. The door of her house was open- 

 ed, and Mrs. O'Brien and her children at once 

 found a home there. In a fortnight this woman 

 died ; but poor as she had been, her heart was 

 bound up in her children, and her great .solici- 

 tude in death was for them. With the full 

 (1062) 



sympathies of a mother, Catherine promised to 

 do for these children as if they were her own ; 

 and this promise she has faithfully lulfiUed. 



Another Irish woman, Bridget M'Ann, was a 

 common beggar. Her appearance indicated ex- 

 treme distress, and no inconsiderable disease. — ■ 

 Yet she was unwilling to go into the infirmary, 

 becau.se she would there be separated from her 

 children. Catherine visited this woman, gained 

 her confidence, persuaded her to allow her 

 eldest boy to be put into the work house, and 

 took the youngest, about two years old, under 

 her own charge. She nursed this child care- 

 fully, sent some oi' her own clothes to the 

 mother, and took a change of clothes to her eve- 

 ry week. Yet for all these kind oiSces she had 

 scarcely any other return than reproaches and 

 complaints. The clothes, it was said, were not 

 well washed, nor was anything done for her as 

 it .should be done. But Catherine was neither 

 to be fatigued by service nor discouraged by in- 

 gratitude. She felt the claims of weakness, 

 ignorance, and .suffering in this poor beggar far 

 more strongly than she felt any injury to her- 

 self She kept the child for some months, till 

 I the mother reclaimed it ; and then gave up her 

 charge only because she was allowed to hold 

 it no longer. It is only from such facts that 

 one knows how much the poor often do for the 

 poor. 



After a few years' residence in Liverpool, 

 Catherine's son died, which was a sore grief to 

 her, for she was now alone in the world, and 

 had no longer any one of her own family to love. 

 To fill up the vacancy, she gladly took 

 charge of three children from a widower, a re- 

 spectable man in the neighborhood, w^ho en- 

 gaged to pay her twelve shillings per week for 

 their board. She, however, had not long had 

 the children under her roof, when the health of 

 the man failed, and he v^^as unable to earn the 

 amount he had agreed to pay her. So anxious, 

 however, was he to do what he could in pay- 

 ment for the relief and comfort he had received 

 that he was actually at his work on the w^eek 

 in which he died. Catherine kindly waited 

 upon him on his death bed, and though he pro- 

 fessed a different form of religious belief from 

 her own, brought him, unasked, a clergyman 

 of his own persuasion. She said " she thought 

 people always go fastest to Heaven on their 

 own road." On his dying bed this poor man 

 besought her to retain the charge of his children. 

 She gave him her word that she would ; and 

 she admirably performed her promise. After 

 a time the youngest boy was placed in a chari- 

 ty school, where .she maintained a faithful super- 

 vision of him: and when he left it, she fitted 

 him out for sea, and has still the care of him 

 whenever he returns from a voyage. The girl 

 she kept two or three years, till she found a 

 good place for her. And the eldest boy, owing 

 to the failure of the master to whom he ■was ap- 

 prenticed, has for several years been, and still 

 is, a considerable expense to her. He is now 

 indeed at a trade, but he has so small wages 

 that he is obliged to look to Catherine for much 

 of his means of living. A fellow-apprentice 

 earned only four shillings a week. His own 

 father refused to keep him for so small a sum. 

 The anxiety and grief of his mother were ex- 

 treme, and she applied to Kitty upon the subject, 

 who told the mother that on condition of the 

 good conduct of the boy, she would receive him 

 into her family. 



At the first appearance of cholera in E ngland , 

 great anxiety was manifested to guard againet 



