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Book, page 141 / 145 arrive to remove my uncle's few personal possessions from her inhospitable roof. I believe she took her revenge by giving her cronies to understand that she had turned my uncle away at a week's warning for bringing home improper companions to her respectable house.--But to return to Little Christmas. She fared all the better for the landlady's unkindness; for my mother took her home and washed her with her own soft hands from head to foot; and then put all the new clothes on her, and she looked charming. How my uncle would have managed I can't think. He was delighted at the improvement in her appearance. I saw him turn round and wipe his eyes with his handkerchief. "'Now, Little Christmas, will you come and live with me?' said he. "She pulled the same face, though not quite so long as before, and said, 'I would rather go to my crossing, please, sir.' "My uncle heaved a sigh and let her go. "She shouldered her broom as if it had been the rifle of a giant, and trotted away to her work. "But next day, and the next, and the next, she was not to be seen at her wonted corner. When a whole week had passed and she did not make her appearance, my uncle was in despair. "'You see, Charlie,' said he, 'I am fated to be of no use to anybody, though I was born on Christmas-day.' "The very next day, however, being Sunday, my uncle found her as he went to church. She was sweeping a new crossing. She seemed to have found a lower deep still, for, alas! all her new clothes were gone, and she was more tattered and wretched-looking than before. As soon as she saw my uncle she burst into tears. "'Look,' she said, pulling up her little frock, and showing her thigh with a terrible bruise upon it; '_she_ did it.' "A fresh burst of tears followed. "'Where are your new clothes, Little Christmas?' asked my uncle.
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