A kind neighbor who happened to have the cabin in question lying unoccupied, or rather waste upon his hands, made them an offer of it; not, as he said, in the expectation that they could live in it for any length of time, but merely until they could provide themselves with a more comfortable and suitable abode.
"He wished," he added, "it was better for their sakes; and sorry he was to see such a family brought so low as to live in it at all!" Alas! he knew not at the time how deeply the unfortunate family in question were steeped in distress and poverty.

They accepted this miserable cabin; but in spite of every effort to improve their condition, days, weeks, and months passed, and still found them unable to make a change for the better.
When Darby and Sarah entered, they found young Con, who had now relapsed, lying in one corner of the cabin, on a wretched shake-down bed of damp straw; while on another of the same description lay his amiable and affectionate sister Nancy.

The cabin stood, as we have said, in a low, moist situation, the floor of it being actually lower--which is a common case--than the ground about it outside.

It served, therefore, as a receptacle for the damp and under-water which the incessant down-pouring of rain during the whole season had occasioned.

It was therefore, dangerous to tread upon the floor, it was so soft and slippery.