has maintained herself decently by dressmaking for the poor around, but is now ill with a weak heart and its frequent symptom, dropsy, and is unable to leave her bed. The poor woman whose room she shares has helped her with much self-denial and kindness, but her work is slack. Hitherto the widow's son, a young man of twenty-eight (married, with one child) has paid his mother's rent, but he has been out of work a month, and was sitting when the visitor called, looking into a miserable fire of a few cinders he had just brought in for his mother. The lady who reports this case says: "If this poor thing does not get better in a few days she will consent to go into the infirmary, but it is a hard struggle for a woman who values her bits of things' and has skilled hands to keep a home, to surrender to the conviction that health has forsaken her ; and until her resolution is taken or her strength is restored I should like to ease that poor man's burden a little by the gift of coals or food to the mother. It must be sore to feel the claims of wife, child and mother, and no work to be had. He is a sober man, and seeks work far and near.

WIFE AND FIVE CHILDREN.

In another house, a French polisher has been unable to get one week's regular employment all through the winter. He has a wife and five children; all are decent, respectable people. They have had to live on bread and a halfpennyworth of treacle for days together, and to content themselves with one or two pennyworth of coal or coke at a time. They must have gone to the workhouse or starved, but for the assistance given by means of work found for the woman, dinners for the three children attending the Board schools, and tickets for bread and coal.

HOW DO YOU LIVE?

A poor woman came to beg for work, whose husband met with an accident by a kick from a horse some time ago. His face was injured, and he is very unsightly, and can only get an odd job to do now and then. The woman was deplorably thin, wretched-looking, and miserably clad. She had just taken her youngest child to the hospital; the others had scarcely any decent clothing. When asked in sympathy rather than as an inquiry, "How do you live?" she answered with a quiver in her faint, low voice, "I don't think, ma'am, we do live," and her looks bore testimony to her words. When the husband is permanently disabled, or can only at best get an odd job, a poor woman suffers more from destitution than if she were a widow. This poor woman is a good mother, and although in the most abject poverty, her children are kept clean and respectable. The week's entire earnings recently amounted to is. 8d., and ye four mouths were to be filled, and rent and fuel found. The help supplied in this case has brought some slight sense of comfort, and with it renewed confidence in man and hope in God.

GOVERNMENT EXAMINATION.

A poor widow, a respectable, industrious woman, came for work, and at the same time begged, for the first time, for a little coal, which she had been almost without for two days, having had but one pennyworth for that time. She has two children dependent on her, is in delicate health, and can do little but needlework for a living. She had sent her little boy (about seven years old) that day to school without any proper breakfast, having only a crust to give him. It was the time of the Government examination, and the children were kept in school till past one o'clock, and

then told to hasten back again directly after dinner. This poor little fellow hurried home, but the mother had not even a crust to give him, and he had to go back to school dinnerless, and to take his place in the ranks. Hunger will sharpen up to a certain point, but not beyond it, and probably the teacher wondered at the dulness of this child, who had been fasting for six or seven hours and was yet trying to keep up with his interrogators.

A BRAVE WOMAN.

A family which had long lived in good circumstances, but which from the fact that the father had for months been under hospital treatment, having gone through two severe operations, had become quite destitute. The maintenance of her husband and five children had been thrown on the wife, who bravely did her best with her needle to find bread for all seven. Little by little the treasured furniture had to be sold, until everything disappeared. Next the clothes were parted with until everything saleable had been disposed of, and when visited the whole family were without food, and with scarcely rags to cover them, and the husband utterly unfit for work. The tidy, orderly habits, and the evidently good breeding of the children, were apparent despite their destitution. And the unceasing striving of the brave woman to find even bread for her loved ones, was a sight to touch with deep pity the hardest heart. An order was secured for admission of the man into a Convalescent hospital, and a continuance of work provided for the woman.

HOW THE POOR LIVE.

Another somewhat similar case is that of a cricket-bat maker, who, having met with a severe accident, lost his

power to work, and when seen had neither coals nor bread in the house. On the occasion of the second visit the man had earned a few pence, and the wife stated that on the previous Sunday they had had one cow-heel for dinner, which had been shared by the parents and four children, and some of it was saved for Monday's dinner, and a small portion was then waiting for the father's tea when he should come in.

A CHILD'S PRAYER.

A labouring man with a wife and one little girl have been in pressing difficulties from the man's want of work. This was bad enough, but not the worst, as it came out that the husband was the victim of drink. Pressed for rent, and threatened by the landlord with early expulsion, the wife became ill. At last, one night the father, who was always kind to his little child, overheard her praying "Lord Jesus, do keep father from the drink" (a prayer suggested by the child's own mind); and this decided the poor fellow to break away from the evil which was threatening destruction to wife and child, as well as himself. After attending some of the Mission meetings, the man took the pledge, and has kept it ever since. But work has been hard to find, and when found the job has only been a short one. These people have been at times very near starvation, and the assistance given them has been most valuable. The man's resolution was worth something, when, after seeking work at the East End and at the North, and everywhere, and ready to drop with fatigue, he has been able to withstand the dangerous invitations to drink held out to him by others.

HOPE AND FEAR.

Help has been given to a boy-the -till lately her best earthly hope.

eldest son of a widow The lad is a good,

industrious fellow-one of four whom she has maintained with her needle since their father's death four years ago. The boy some time since procured a situation in the City, walking to and fro with but scant food to support him. Recently he took a chill, and then congestion, and inflammation of the lungs set in, and to those who see him, it seems as though God was preparing him for a brighter life beyond the grave. But there is yet hope that he may be spared to his mother, if proper nourishment and medicine are procured, for which, however, his mother's means are quite insufficient.

THE BRINK OF DESPAIR.

In one case, a mother and four small children were found almost destitute of clothing. The woman was so ragged that she declared she could not go outside her door. A bright-faced little girl of eight or nine kept a boy's coat, which reached to her heels, carefully wrapped about her slender form; it had no buttons, and probably was the only garment she had. Nearly all of them were bare-footed, and a little boy of four, whose shoulders were seen through his torn jacket, had a rag of some sort pinned about his waist, which served as a further covering for his body and legs. An hour later, thanks to the boxes of clothing, the children were comfortably clad from head to foot, and the mother, in decent dress, cloak, and bonnet, said she felt a thousand pounds happier. Further particulars respecting this sad case of destitution may be added. The visitor found in the room she entered, no furniture whatever but a small wooden box. When allowed, with some reluctance, to look into the other room, all that was found was a heap of straw in a corner, over which were two bits of sacking like ragged coal bags. Such was the whole of the furniture for a family of eight persons. The lingering self-respect of this woman had