Once she had played truant from school, and told falsehoods to
the teachers to explain her absence. It was discovered that she had
been tempted by other girls to go and see the Lord Mayor's show.
Annie and Tom threatened to be troublesome when they got a little
older; the boy could not be taught to speak the truth, and his
sister was constantly committing petty thefts of jam, sugar, even
coppers; and during the past year their mother was seldom able to
exert herself in correcting these faults. Only by dint of struggle
which cost her agonies could she discharge the simplest duties of
home. She made a brave fight against disease and penury and
incessant dread of the coming day, but month after month her
strength failed. Now at length she tried vainly to leave her bed.
The last reserve of energy was exhausted, and the end near.
After her death, what then? Through the nights of this week after
her doom had been spoken she lay questioning the future. She knew
that but for her unremitting efforts Hewett would have yielded to
the despair of a drunkard; the crucial moment was when he found
himself forsaken by his daughter, and no one but this poor woman
could know what force of loving will, what entreaties, what tears,
had drawn him back a little way from the edge of the gulf.
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