out into the cold air and setting her feet upon the snowy streets, had somewhat the effect of breaking a spell. For a while, that seemed now a very long while, Matilda had been in a whirl of expectation and pleasure and in a kind of dream of enchantment; nothing but soft luxury and visions of delight and one thing after another to make the child think she had got into very fairyland. But the streets outside were not fairyland; and the sharp air pinched her cheek with a grip which was not tender or flattering at all. The sense began to come back to Matilda that everybody was not having such rose-coloured dreams as she, nor living in summer-heated rooms. Nay, she saw children that were ill dressed, on their way like her; some who were insufficiently dressed; a multitude who were not nicely dressed; the contrast was very unpleasant, and a certain feeling of uneasiness and of responsibility and of desire to make other people comfortable crept over her anew. Then she remembered that she could not reach many, she could not do much; and she came into school and took her seat at last with a concentrated desire to do at least something effectual towards rescuing Sarah Staples from her miserable circumstances. After the lesson was done and the scholars were dismissed, Matilda asked Mr. Wharncliffe if she could speak to him?
"Is it a minute's work? or several minutes?" he inquired.
"I don't know, sir; I think, several minutes."
"Then wait a minute, and we will walk home together."
Matilda liked that, and presently in the clear late light of the waning winter afternoon, she and her teacher sallied forth into the street hand in hand.
"Now what is it?" he asked.
"About Sarah, Mr. Wharncliffe."
"Well? What about her?"
"I have been thinking a great deal, Mr. Wharncliffe, how to manage it; because I had not a great deal of money myself, and I did not know whether I could get help or no; but now I think I shall have some help; and I wanted to consult you to know what I had best do."
"What do you want to do?"
"First, I want to get her out of that dreadful place into a comfortable room somewhere."
"Suppose you do it, how is she going to stay in it?"
"What do you mean, sir?"
"The rent of such a room as you speak of would be, say seventy-five cents or a dollar a week. How are Sarah and her mother to pay that?"
"O I should have to pay it for them. I could do that, I think."
"For how long?"
Matilda looked at her teacher and did not immediately answer. She had not looked ahead so far as that.
"It is necessary to take all things into consideration," he said, answering her look. "You would not wish to put Sarah and her mother into a place of comfort for a little while, merely to let them fall out of it again?"
"O no, sir!"
"How are they to be maintained in it?"
Matilda pondered.
"I could take care of the rent, I think, I mean we could, for a while; for a year, perhaps; by that time couldn't they pay it, don't you think?"
"How?"
"By their work; by their earnings."
"But now, and for a long time past, their work has not enabled them to pay for anything better than they have got."
"Couldn't they do something better, Mr. Wharncliffe? something else? that would give them more money?"
"What work could you help them to, that would pay better?"
"I don't know, sir," said Matilda, looking up wistfully in her teacher's face. "I don't know anything about such things. Can you tell me? What work is there that they could get. What the other poor people do?"
"There are other things," said Mr. Wharncliffe thoughtfully. "There are better and better paying sorts of sewing; what Mrs. Staples does is very coarse, and she gets very little for it. But machine work now-a-days puts hand work at a disadvantage."
"What is machine work, sir?"
"Work done on a sewing machine. With a machine a woman can do I suppose, ten times as much in a day, and with more ease to herself."
"Well, wouldn't Mrs. Staples work on a machine?"
"I do not know. I think she used to take in washing once. She could do that again, if she had a better room and conveniences."
"And does that pay better?"
"I believe so. Indeed I am sure."
"Then she might do washing," said Matilda; "and Sarah might sew on a machine, Mr. Wharncliffe."
"She has not got one, you know."
"If we could get her one? Wouldn't that be nice, Mr. Wharncliffe?"
"My dear child, a good sewing machine costs a good deal of money."
"But if we could, Mr. Wharncliffe? I said if."
"Nothing could be better. Perhaps, by and by, it might be managed. In the mean time, Sarah might learn, and possibly get work; or get a machine and pay for it gradually by doing work for the makers. Such arrangements are made."
"How much does a sewing machine cost?"
"From forty five to sixty dollars."
"Forty five," repeated Matilda gravely. "But, Mr. Wharncliffe, in the first place the thing to do is to get them out of that place into a new room. Might we not do that? and don't you think the rest can be managed, somehow?"
"If we do that, the rest must be managed, if possible. It is always greater kindness and a far greater benefit, Matilda, to help poor people to take care of themselves, than to save them that care."
"Why, sir?"
"People are better and happier and stronger, working for their living and earning it, and keeping the sense of independence, than they are when living on the money of other people and losing their own self-respect. That is very ruinous to character. Avoid it always, in all your efforts to help people."
"Yes, I see," said Matilda thoughtfully. "But, Mr. Wharncliffe, Sarah and her mother cannot do anything to get in a better way while they live in that cellar. They want some help just at first. Don't they?"
"Certainly; and I think we have struck the right line of action to pursue for them. Help to put them in the way of being comfortably independent, is just what they want."
"Then the first thing is a lodging," said Matilda, with a relieved and brightening face. "How can we find one, Mr. Wharncliffe? I don't want them to know about it till we get it all settled and ready for them to move into."
"Ready for them?" said Mr. Wharncliffe inquiringly.
"Yes, sir; you know they have nothing to put into a nice room now, if they had one."
"Aren't you laying plans beyond your means?"
"Beyond mine; but I shall have some help. I don't know exactly how much, but some."
