10
STUDENTS JOURNAL.
the road we shall be in sight of 'the slums." At the turn of the road they stopped.
They were at the top of a gentle slope, that ended in the hollow below. Beyond, as far as the eye could see, was the dark green foliage of distant trees, interspersed with patches of reddish yellow soil, and the hills with their hazy blue aspect. In the light of the evening sun the landscape gleamed.
On the slope, just below the road were several habitations, but so hemmed in were they by the rank grass that was growing around that hey were scarcely visible.
"Ah, so that is the place said the Editor with a mock sigh of relief.
"Yes, but aren't we going to visit them?" asked Mildred, as the Editor showed no sign of moving.
The Editor was too shocked speak. Visit them!
"Come this side of the road, we can see better. Never mind them, they won't notice us. They are perfectly oblivious to their surroundings. More's the pity too, for in the midst of such natural beauty, we ought to be able to effect some good."
"What good can you do such people?" asked the Editor in a voice of utter amazement. The Editor's mission extended to the cultured class.
"Well, you will be surprised perhaps, but there really is one member of this settlement who is susceptible to goodness; who, at least, lives in accordance with her own standard of good, and tries to direct others, too. But she has an awful load on her shoulders! I know her quite well, she comes to our house to work. She owns all this land. That is," with a laugh, "she rents it for twenty cents a month That is the dwelling there."
Mildred pointed to a little low, black hut, covered with tar paper and rotten boards.
'She lives there with her daughter, who has a large family of children, the oldest of whom Sarah has adopted, and means to lead in the 'straight and narrow way.' He goes to chool and to the Mission Sunday School, and then, there's her son,' 'Billy-my-son' she always calls him, but he's going to build himself a cottage as soon as he gets the money; they're rather crowded there. This large white tent that you see here belongs to Sarah's brother-in-law, William Brown, he also, used to live with Sarah, but with increasing prosperity - Sarah married an old man, who soon died and left her a little money—their ideas of living became enlarged, and Sarah proposed William's having a home to himself. In fact, William Brown hasn't the most angelic temper in the world."
"How very dreadful!" said the Editor, delighted with the description.
"There is one other abode, but we can't see it, on account of the thick grass. It is at the left of the main entrance,—yes there is an entrance to the place. It is a subteranean dwelling, and belongs to 'Nicky.' I haven't been able to find out who Nicky is, but he seems to be a genial fellow. He fixed up the place—so Sarah tells me—because he likes to have his friends come to visit him, and the other houses are so crowded, and the children so troublesome. We can see it if we go in—"
"I really have a message to deliver," Mildred added, smiling at the Editor's reluctance to enter the yard.
They descended the bank, from which the shrubs and grass had been removed to effect an entrance. "Nicky's cottage," said Mildred, pointing to a little mound at her left.
"Nicky's cottage," looked very much like a cyclone dugout. The entrance extended two or three feet above the level of the ground, but was closed up by boards. Nicky evidently was not