There was an old woman in, and a flaxen-headed lad about ten years of age.

She was sitting upon a low chair,--the only seat in the place,--and the tattered lad was kneeling on the ground before her, whilst she combed his hair out.
"Well, missis, how are you getting on amongst it ?" "Oh, well, then, just middlin', Mr T.Ye see, I am busy combin' this boy's hair a bit, for 'tis gettin' like a wisp o' hay." There was not a vestige of furniture in the cottage, except the chair the old woman sat on.
She said, "I did sell the childer's bedstead for 2s.

6d.; an' after that I sold the bed from under them for 1s.6d., just to keep them from starvin' to death.

The childer had been two days without mate then, an' faith I couldn't bear it any longer.

After that I did sell the big pan, an' then the new rockin' chair, an' so on, one thing after another, till all wint entirely, barrin' this I am sittin' on, an' they wint for next to nothin' too.