"I mean to try hard," she answers, wiping her eyes. "But I have been a-thinking, being over-tired to-night and not well with the ague, of all the many things that'll come in his way. My master will be against it, and he'll be beat, and see me beat, and made to fear his home, and perhaps to stray wild. If I work for him ever so much, and ever so hard, there's no one to help me; and if he should be turned bad 'spite of all I could do, and the time should come when I should sit by him in his sleep, made hard and changed, an't it likely I should think of him as he lies in my lap now and wish he had died as Jenny's child died!"
"There, there!" says Jenny. "Liz, you're tired and ill. Let me take him."
In doing so, she displaces the mother's dress, but quickly readjusts it over the wounded and bruised bosom where the baby has been lying.

"I mean to try hard," she answers, wiping her eyes. "But I have been a-thinking, being over-tired and ill with the ague, of all the things that'll come in his way. My master will be against it, and he'll be beat, and see me beat, and made to fear his home, and perhaps to stray wild. If I work for him ever so much, there's no one to help me; and if he should be turned bad in spite of all I could do, and made hard and changed, an't it likely I should think of him as he lies in my lap now and wish he had died!"
"There, there!" says Jenny. "Liz, you're tired and ill. Let me take him." In doing so, she moves the mother's dress, but quickly readjusts it over the bruised bosom where the baby has been lying.
