We are confident that what happened was not occasioned by any indisposition on your part to fulfil your agreement." "My dear," interrupted Mrs.Burrell, "she thinks you are Mr.Blatchford." "And are you not ?" asked Esther, with some surprise.
"Oh, no; I'm an intimate friend of his, and was present this morning when the affair happened." "Oh, indeed," responded Esther.
"Yes; and he came home and related it all to me,--the whole affair," interrupted Mrs.Burrell.

"I was dreadfully provoked; I assure you, I sympathized with him very much.

I became deeply interested in the whole affair; I was looking at my little boy,--for I have a little boy," said she, with matronly dignity,--"and I thought, suppose it was my little boy being treated so, how should I like it?
So bringing the matter home to myself in that way made me feel all the more strongly about it; and I just told George Burrell he must take him, as he is an engraver; and I and the baby gave him no rest until he consented to do so.

He will take him on the same terms offered by Mr.Blatchford; and then we came down to tell you; and--and," said she, quite out of breath, "that is all about it." Esther took the little woman's plump hand in both her own, and, for a moment, seemed incapable of even thanking her.

At last she said, in a husky voice, "You can't think what a relief this is to us.