She took them as coming for him altogether, without any
reference to her own use. But at the bottom of the basket there were
stockings, and a handkerchief or two, and a petticoat, and a pair of
shoes. Should she throw them out among the ashes behind the kitchen, or
should she press them to her bosom as treasures to be loved as long as
a single thread of them might hang together? She had taken such alms
before--from her aunt Sophie--taking them in bitterness of spirit, and
wearing them as though they were made of sackcloth, very sore to the
skin. The acceptance of such things, even from her aunt, had been gall
to her; but, in the old days, no idea of refusing them had come to her.
Of course she must submit herself to her aunt's charity, because of her
father's poverty. And garments had come to her which were old and worn,
bearing unmistakable signs of Lotta's coarse but reparative energies--
raiment against which her feminine niceness would have rebelled, had it
been possible for her, in her misfortunes, to indulge her feminine
niceness.
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