and then; poor
body! It takes off her thoughts from her sore losses when she can scold a bit.
If my eyes are left I can do well enough; I can guess at what folk are saying.«
    The splendid red and yellow patch quilt now made its appearance, and Jane
Wilson would not be satisfied unless Mary praised it all over, border, centre,
and ground-work, right side and wrong; and Mary did her duty, saying all the
more, because she could not work herself up to any very hearty admiration of her
rival's present. She made haste, however, with her commendations, in order to
avoid encountering Jem. As soon as she was fairly away from the house and
street, she slackened her pace, and began to think. Did Jem really care for
Molly Gibson? Well, if he did, let him. People seemed all to think he was much
too good for her (Mary's own self). Perhaps some one else, far more handsome,
and far more grand, would show him one day that she was good enough to be Mrs.
Henry Carson. So temper, or what Mary called spirit, led her to encourage Mr.
Carson more than ever she had done before.
    Some weeks after this there was a meeting of the Trades' Union to which John
Barton belonged. The morning of the day on which it was to take place he had
lain late in bed, for what was the use of getting up? He had hesitated between
the purchase of meal or opium, and had chosen the latter, for its use had become
a necessity with him. He wanted it to relieve him from the terrible depression
its absence occasioned. A large lump seemed only to bring him into a natural
state, or what had been his natural state formerly. Eight o'clock was the hour
fixed for the meeting; and at it were read letters, filled with details of woe,
from all parts of the country. Fierce, heavy gloom brooded over the assembly;
and fiercely and heavily did the men separate, towards eleven o'clock, some
irritated by the opposition of others to their desperate plans.
    It was not a night to cheer them, as they quitted the glare of the
gas-lighted room, and came out into the street. Unceasing, soaking rain was
falling; the very lamps seemed obscured by the damp upon the glass, and their
light reached but to a little distance from the posts. The streets were cleared
of passers-by; not a creature seemed stirring, except here