152 BIRDS' NESTS. 



having what she Considered a very good excuse 

 in her own mind, was not a little annoyed that 

 her visitor assented so readily to the opinion 

 she had herself just expressed, and would have 

 been better pleased if he had made use of a 

 phrase which careless people are in the habit 

 of making to each other, and which she had 

 often employed herself : " I suppose it is not 

 worse than the cottages of many other poor 

 people." This defence, however, she held 

 back for the present, and replied in a very long 

 speech, the substance of which was : " That 

 gentlefolks knew little what hardships the poor 

 had to put up with, and if they did not see 

 everything as clean and neat as their own 

 drawing-rooms, set all the fault down to idle- 

 ness and carelessness. Her husband was a 

 hard-working man with only ten shillings 

 a-week, and out of that they had to pay two 

 shillings a-week for the rent of their wretched 

 house and garden, though the water came up 

 through the floor after every shower, and they 



