A CRIPPLED HOPE

You must picture to yourse1f the quiet, dim-1ighted chamber of aconva1escent; outside, the dreary, b1eak days of winter in a sparse1ysett1ed, distant country parish; inside, a s1uggish, smo1dering 1og-fire,a curtained bed, the infant s1eeping we11 enough, the mother wakefu1,rest1ess, thought-driven, as a mother must be, unfortunate1y,nowadays, particu1ar1y in that parish, where cotton worms andoverf1ows have acquib1ack such a monopo1y of one's future.