CHAPTER IV. NEARER APPROACH. which was farther confirmed by the very settled expression of a countenance by no means prepossessing. Next to him, in stature and in place, sat a comparatively stout and straight little fellow, but with an aspect so vacant, so stupified, that he seemed to be under the influence of a powerful narcotic. The third was the spectre of a very pretty girl, whose naked arms resembled ivory wands rather than limbs of natural flesh and blood, while her hair, black as the raven's wing, thin as the gossamer thread, thrown back from her temples, and falling, or rather floating down to her very narrow shoulders, set off the deadly white of her complexion with such effect that she seemed like one in whose veins the current of life had already ceased to circulate. The eyes, generally downcast, were shaded by deep, silken lashes; but when raised, the broad, unflinching stare of the girl was oppressive. Helen, who, sitting opposite, had fixed a LET no one suppose we are going to write fiction, or to conjure up phantoms of a heated imagination, to aid the cause which we avowedly embrace. Names may be altered, characters may be grouped, with some latitude of license; but not an incident shall be coined to serve the purpose, however good, so far as relates to the main subject—that is, to the factories of this, our free and happy England. Vivid indeed, and fertile in devices must the fancy be that could invent a horror beyond the bare, every-day reality of the thing! Nay, we will set forth nothing but what has been stated on oath, corroborated on oath, and on oath confirmed beyond the possibility of an evasive question. Neither will we lift the veil that piety and modesty would draw over the hidden atro- | look of interest on her, encountered one of cities of this diabolical child-market. Blasphemy and indecency may, they do abound, turning every mill into a pandemonium; but it is not needful to sully our pages with either. We will exhibit the tree, we will analyze the soil where it grows, the elements that nourish, the hands that culture it, and the fruit which it ultimately produces; but the secret circulation of its poisonous sap we will not so bare as to contaminate the mind of a youthful reader, or to harrow up the soul of any one. Let the pestilence preserve the cloud of darkness in which it walks; we only desire to show the withered remains of its poor blighted victims. The group that entered Mrs. Wright's dwelling and whom their mother's instinctive movement had partially screened from view while she uttered her deprecating remark, quickly drew round the table, and commenced an eager attack on the provisions before them. It consisted of three children, a girl and two boys, at whose ages it was impossible to guess with any hope of accuracy. Little difference appeared in their height as they sat, the tallest not exceeding that of Mary Green; but the stoop of his projecting head, the retiring curve of his chest, and the disproportionate length of his arms, betrayed a deficiency or a perversion of natural growth, these sudden gazes, and shrank before it, with an undefined sensation of alarm. Meanwhile Mrs. Wright sustained a voluble part, plying her mother with questions, and interrupting her answers with much irrelevant matter. At length the old lady seized an interval to ask, "Where is Phoebe, your eldest ?" "There," replied her daughter, pointing to the dark-haired girl, "that's Phoebe." "I-, I believe I have made a mistake; it was Sarah I meant to inquire for." "She is not at home just now," said Mrs. Wright, colouring a little, "you will see her by and by ;" then added, "this is Charles, and the little one is John." "And the other three ?" Mrs. Wright shook her head, and lifted the corner of her apron to her eyes; while Charles with a shrug, said abruptly, "All gone, grandmother; dead all five of them; and a happy deliverance it was." "Heaven is better than earth," ejaoulated the mother, raising her eyes. "A glance that passed between Charles and Phoebe at these words, a suppressed grin on the face of the former, and a sidelong look of scorn from his sister, excited the astonishment of their cousins, and increased Helen's uneasiness. The widow did not perceive it: she was painfully recalling some statements in her de ighter's letters now clearly shown to have been The widow could not but acquiesce in wilfully false. Wright's entrance proved this; and when the family party broke up, a seasonable interruption, and his cordial with a prayerless, cold good night, she in greeting a contrast to the heartless scene. their own apartment commended her little "My good mother," he said, affection- | flock to the covenanted mercies of God in ately saluting her, "it is many a long Christ Jesus, and soon saw the three year since we met, and bravely you seem to younger ones in a sound sleep. Helen, have weathered it. Young people, you are however, had never felt more wakeful; kindly welcome all. Why, so many rosy anxious thoughts were crowding on her cheeks are like a flower-show in the town mind. When all was hushed save the of M." He passed his eye from them to brawling voices and rattling wheels that his own children, and compressing his seemed interminably to distract the streets, lips, as if to stifle a sigh, sat down. she gave utterance to her feelings. By this time, Johnny's evident drowsiness had so increased, that his head fell upon his brother's shoulder, who, with a rough push, sent it back against Phoebe: her shrill scolding exclamation half waked the poor boy, and with an unintelligible mutter he rose to stagger towards a pressbed, turned up against the wall. His mother loudly called on him to return; but the father, saying, "Poor fellow, let him rest a while," rose and let down the untidy couch, on which he instantly flung himself. "Is he ill?" asked James, in a half whisper. "Not he," replied Charles; "'tis seldom he keeps awake so long." He rose as he spoke, or rather stood; for no perceptible difference was made in his height by the change of position, owing to the curvature of his legs. The deformity was striking, and the irregular shuffle with which he crossed the room painful to witness. The widow averted her eyes, and hastily inquired of Wright whether he knew the cotton mill of the Messrs. Z-. "Of course I do, for my children work there, but Granny, this place is very different from the quiet home we have left; and the people we saw on our way are very different, too, from our old neighbours. What a comfort it is to know that the best friend of all is with us here as much as in our own home, though we cannot see Him!" "A comfort indeed, dear child: and we shall need it more and more to uphold us now. I fear we have a thorny path before us!" "Never mind that, so long as it is the right path; you know who has said, 'The way-faring men, though fools, shall not err therein.'" "And how are we to know, Helen, that we are in the right path ?" "I think, Granny, while we are striving to do our duty in that state of life into which it has pleased God to call us, and are looking to him for help and strength, and trying to confess the Lord Jesus Christ before men, both with our lips and in our lives, that we may hope we are not out of the good way." "And do you think, Helen. you shall be able to do this, if you get among bad peo "Never mind his buts, mother," inter-ple who try to tempt you to wickedness; rupted the wife, "he is famous for them." "I have a letter of recommendation to that firm," resumed Mrs. Green; "and tomorrow I wished to deliver it, as Mr. Stratton charged me to avoid delay; yet I should like to make a few inquiries beforehand." In fact, the discovery of her other grandchildren being employed in it was the reverse of an inducement to place their cousins there. "Take my advice," said Wright, "if you have a good word spoken for you to any mill-owner, act upon it. You'll soon learn the value of a friend at the head." and to laugh you out of your religion?" "Indeed I don't know: there is nothing good in me, and I seem to tremble when I look forward. Now, Granny, will you pray with me, that the Lord God may be to us, as He has promised to be to his people, a Father of the fatherless, and a Husband to the widow ?" The prayer was immediately offered, amid many tears and sighs; for both were oppressed with a weight that they knew not how to sustain, except by casting the burden on the Lord. When they rose, the poo old woman tenderly embraced her orphan charge, and blessed her for leading her to that most comforting refuge. Helen answered, now. I think, Granny, you had better take us to the gentleman you have the letter to, rather than a stranger." Then, seeing the deep grief and alarm depicted on her friend's countenance, she added. "You know, all Christ's people must bear a cross; and really we have had none to bear, we have been so happy and prosperous. So it is reasonable to expect it now. Besides, is it not a mercy to be forewarned ?" "The truth is, dear Granny, I have always thought more than I spoke; but now I see you are likely to have many difficulties and few helps, I desire to be, after my poor fashion, more useful to you; and I want to get over my unwillingness to speak out. Oh, my mother," she added, with a fresh burst of tears, "I fear we are come to a bad place, and these poor little lambs" Again the poor widow thanked her -she could not go on. young counseller; who, smiling through "Tell me, what have you seen or heard tears, said, "I have often prayed that your to cause such alarm?" "Not much; but two or three things passed that distressed me. Phoebe, who is, as you first thought, the eldest, and two years older than me, though she is so little, said that Mary might be passed, with the doctor's help, for thirteen, and Willy for more than nine, and so get higher wages. When I told her it would be an untruth to say they were more than eleven and eight, she and her brother made quite a mock of me, saying nobody minded such nonsense here; and then they told me some cases of such wicked deceit, that it frightened me to hear of them. They laughed the more at me; and said you would soon learn, like others, to make the best bargain you could of the children." "What else, Helen?" exclaimed the widow, who saw she hesitated here. "Tell me all, my child; for it is of great importance I should know it now." "I thought so, Granny: or I would never have been a tell-tale, to grieve you, and to expose these poor young people. They informed me that their sister Sarah, whom you were asking for, was made as they said, too good a bargain of; and that from early over-work in the mill, bad treatment, and other injuries-they did not say what she is such an object that her mother kept her out of our sight. She is up stairs in a little loft, not likely to live long. All the others died of early consumption." The widow was petrified at a tale which, in addition to its other horrors, proved her daughter to have been guilty of the most systematic falsehood. Helen resumed: "From all they said, I feared it was likely you might be deceived into making some agreement that you would afterwards be sorry for: therefore I tell you kindness to me, a friendless child, might be like bread cast on the waters to be found again after many days; but as yet I have done nothing for you, my own dear Granny." They went to rest; and at an hour much earlier than even their usual habits had accustomed them to awake at, they were startled from repose by the ringing of a large bell, followed by the shrill tones of Mrs. Wright in the adjoining room, calling on her children to "get up and be off." It evidently required some rough persuasion to divorce Johnny from his bed; and a blow, followed by an angry cry, was heard. After the lapse of a very few minutes, the door slammed after the departing trio, who were evidently sent forth fasting. As for any morning devotion, it was but too plain that such a thing was wholly incompatible with the habits and feelings of the family. In one point of view, this rather calmed the widow's rising apprehensions; she knew that wherever the tree is evil the fruit must be so too; and she strove to persuade herself that what this household were in the town of M- they would have been in her own peaceful villiage, or in any other place. Resolving, therefore, to be so guarded in her proceedings as to avoid any trap that might be laid, she strove to picture to herself a scene of piety, peace and comfort, when her dear children were once finally engaged in the work which she resolved should be rather below than above their years and capabilities. Mr. Stratton's letter was her sheet anchor; for even if he did wish to separate them from the parish it was manifestly his interest to make such absence agreeable to them; and so to prevent their return. Thus she reasoned with herself; and rose with a somewhat lightened spirit. man of fashionable appearance issued "Mr. Stratton," said Mr. Z. "has re believe I can do it. Here, Abel, write a note to M., and mind this." He pointed out a passage in the letter, at which 'the clerk gave a knowing smile, and proceeded to pen a few lines which he folded and sealed. Not so Helen; she had a presentiment of evil, as it seemed. In reality it was only the effect of her natural sagacity drawing plain conclusions from obvious premises. The boatmen on the canal had dropped hints of which all that she had yet seen were explanatory; the aspect of the town classes where she had passed along, the demeanour of Mrs. Wright, the ap-quested me to provide work for them; I pearance, manners and communications of her elder children, with what she had overheard of the rousing scene that morning, all combined with her deep mistrust of Mr. Stratton, and the anxious warnings of the good clergyman to prepare her for bitter trials. Yet it was not for herself that Helen trembled; her fervent love for the companions of her childhood—the tenderness with which her bosom yearned to wards them on the approach of even the lightest calamity, and the consciousness of their truly helpless state in the midst of a callous population where they had not one friend-for she could not concede that sacred title to their new-found relations-all led her to an utter oblivion of self in the matter, and added poignancy to her fears for them. It was Saturday; and Mrs. Wright, in expatiating on the advantages of beginning work on Monday morning, dropped a few hints that convinced her mother she would feel a satisfaction in seeing them settled in another abode. Desirous of choosing one within an easy distance of the mill where the children would be employed she could not delay her application; and eleven o'clock saw her, accompanied by her neat and healthy young party, making the best of their way to the counting house of the Messrs. Z. A person officiating as clerk at a high desk, scarcely deigned any notice of the respectful salutation of the visiter, but continued writing, until, a little hurt at his discourtesy, the old lady drew forth her letter, which was endorsed Private, requesting to know whether he was the gentleman there addressed. The clerk took it in silence, surveyed, squeezed, and examined it; then, slowly rising, tapped at a door, and handed the epistle to some one within. After a lapse of a few minutes, a gentle While this was being done, the widow respectfully informed Mr. Z. that high wages was not so much their object, as work proportioned to their strength, and sufficient intervals for instruction and proper relaxation: but he interrupted her, without taking his eyes from the newspaper which he was reading, "All that, my good woman, you must settle with my agent: I have nothing farther to do in the matter." And he returned to his apartment. The agent was in another building, and busily employed in making out a number of returns. As he snatched the note which she tendered, the widow thought she had never seen a less prepossessing countenance: but she retracted her hasty judgment, when on glancing his eye over its contents, Mr. M. closed the large volume before him, and leaning his arms upon it, bent forward with a complacent smile, inviting her to be seated on a neighbouring chair, while the young people were directed to occupy a bench near the wall. "So Mrs. Green, it appears you have tho good luck to come well recommended to our principal, Mr. Z. "Yes, sir, and he referred me to you." "A nice party of young hands; let's see, what are their ages? but no, we'll say nothing of that just yet. Of course, you will make a long agreement, having such an advantage at entering." "No sir; I wish to make the agreement for a short time on trial." "Trial! Pho-be advised by me; don't drive away good fortune when it comes to your door. Enter them for a couple of years at least." Oh no," exclaimed the widow, who was firmly resolved to do nothing rashly, "I must at present only engage them by the week; but if all turns out as I hope, we can then agree for a longer period." "You are quite wrong: however waiving that point, till we see to others-let me tell you the scale of wages. With the ages you and I have nothing to do-the doctor settles that, and these children are so well-grown that he is not likely to under-rate them. In fact some people are so naughty as to mislead the doctor, by letting him think the youngsters are as old as they look, not what the parish registers make them: and as we can't get at the registers, they have it all their own way, you know." "I should be sorry to act such a part, sir." "Of course, of course: they are, as I said, naughty people; but they reconcile it to their consciences by arguing that it is the actual strength, not the actual age of a person which fits him for labour; and that if a child at eleven years old has the substance and muscle of thirteen, it is perfectly fair to rate him accordingly, and to let him earn the wages of thirteen, which are far better. So you see the people know how to beguile us." "And if they did not," thought the widow, "you are ready enough to teach them the way of deceiving." She then asked where she should find the doctor. ground for the unusual attention paid to her wishes. And so it was: for Mr. Stratton had made over this helpless but active and industrious family to those who were, in return, so effectually to lime them, as to preclude the possibility of their becoming burdens on the parish of L., and had, at the same time, instructed his friends by a few pithy hints how to bait the trap that was to enclose the victims within its iron fence. CHAPTER V. ENTRANCE UPON FACTORY-LIFE. THE persons with whom our agent had principally had to do, in reference to the youthful candidates for mill-labour, were too generally reducible under two headsthose who knew little or nothing of the legalized regulations, and those who were well disposed to evade them. To the latter class the widow Green evidently did not belong to the former she probably did. In fact, the good woman was totally ignorant on the subject, and had it not been for the warning communicated by Helen, she would have come altogether unprepared. Vague, however, as that warning was, it induced her to put into her pocket-book certificates of the children's baptism and age, furnished by Mr. Barlow, and with the imparted wisdom which is not only pure but peaceable, she placed them in the surgeon's hands before any thing could be said. He regarded her with a look of kindness, not unmixed with pity, when she announced herself as the only surviving friend of the orphan party before him. "Helen Fleetwood," read the surgeon, as he opened the first paper, "born so and so: then, my girl, you are now past sixteen ?" "I should not wonder if he dropped in about this time," replied her new friend. "We may wait a few minutes. Meanwhile I'll tell you something of the work." He did so and a very favourable account it was, particularly the circumstance of a new provision that the children should attend school daily during the week. To all her proposed stipulations he returned so ready and smiling an assent, with regard to the freedom and comfort of her children, that in a mind less willing to Judge of others by its own artless honesty some suspicion would have been suggested. The good widow, however, attributed it all to the kind word of Mr. Stratton, considering his letter a sufficient in that. The two next are unquestionably "Stop, stop," cried Mr. M., we have nothing to do with certificates. The ordinary strength and appearance, doctor, is the rule." "We may also be informed of the age." "Well, well, there will be no difficulty |