Anna Alice Chapin

“ However, she did not, and Miggie Bean had, in fact, no hand held out to save her from the downward path! One odd and instructive truth which has been plumbed by pretty nearly every woman at one time or another, came home to her just about now—that a woman battling with temptation of any sort never receives any help from man, woman, Providence, chance, or circumstance. The only person who really seems to keep her in mind is the devil.
Late that evening, on her way home to the asylum after her day's work at Mrs. Crawley's, Miggie knocked at the door of Mrs. Baggs. ”

“ In the kitchen, Miggie Bean's voice was raised in a hymn of praise:
“When shepherds watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground——”
“Ain't that a Christmas carol,” asked Mrs. Baggs softly.
Mrs, Crawley nodded.
“It's real pretty,” said the visitor.
“Yes, it is,” said the hostess. After they had listened a moment, she added: “Miggie is going to sing in the Orphan Asylum Christmas Choir Association, on the twenty-fourth. At least, she is if she gets in. She don't know yet that she can.”
“It seems like I can't realize how close Christmas is.” Little Mrs. Baggs sighed helplessly. ”

“ Crawley commented on it to the thin Mrs. Baggs, as they rocked and worked together in the Crawleys' warm dining room on a glowing winter afternoon. It would once have been in the kitchen—soon it would be in the front parlor—that Mrs. Crawley would receive her guests. At present, she was in an in-between stage; so she entertained them on neutral ground—the dining room.
“Miggie Bean,” said Mrs. Crawley impressively, “has a young man!”
“Mercy me!” said Mrs. Baggs, opening a mild eye, and dropping a stitch—she was a lady who knitted. “What's the world coming to, I should like to know?” ”

“ Ten dollars would mean slippers and white stockings, and a pink velvet rose for her hair, besides the white dress and blue ribbons. Ten dollars! But ten dollars, of course, were not among the things that could happen. ”

“ She had been trained for service, but was such a little, frail, miserable thing that the kind-hearted matron did not like to send her adrift alone, even after she had reached the grown-up, wage-earning age of seventeen. ”

“ Crawley, who prided herself on her cooking, tossed her head.
Mrs. Baggs glanced at her, flushing slightly, and then said, in a hurried, wistful sort of way:
“I—I'm chairwoman of the Church Improvement Committee this year, and it's my turn to per—to pre—to preside,” faltered Mrs. Baggs, who was unused to the word, “at the Christmas supper. They want I should do the plum pudding. I said”—she hesitated—“I said that no one in Colbourne could make plum pudding along with you, Mis' Crawley.”
She paused, and looked at the large woman eagerly,
“I guess that's right!” smiled Mrs. ”