The father, perhaps, goes to his daily labour in the morning, before the children are out of bed, and does not return till they are in bed again at night.

The mother goes out in like manner, the earnings of the husband being insufficient for the maintenance of the family, and the children are intrusted throughout the day to the care of some girl, whose parents are as poor as themselves, and are glad to let her earn something towards her support.

Numbers of little girls thus go out before they are twelve years old, and teach the little children all they know,--commonly to be deceitful, and not unfrequently to be dishonest.

The parents, careless or unsuspecting, only make inquiry when they return home if the children have been good and quiet, and of course receive an answer in the affirmative.

In the course of a few years the evil consequences begin to show themselves, and then the good folks wonder how or when the seeds of such depravity could have been sown.