She realizes that it was an act of great kindness and understanding on the part of her mother to take advantage of the opportunity to remove her own daughter of the harsh reality of her world: “What mother would not want to save her child from such a life? Charity thought of the future of her own child, and tears welled in her painful eyes and ran down her face” (Wharton 92). However, seeing the terrible state of the Mountain, Charity once again makes the choice to leave the Mountain and try to find a solution elsewhere. Yet this is also when Charity realizes that a good mother may have taken extreme measures to keep her children safe. Charity's attempt to understand her mother's ability to entrust her care to Mr. Royall was satisfied when she realized that it was not a lack of love on her mother's part that prompted this act . Before this moment, Charity still believed that maybe there was something wrong with her, or that her mother was making a selfish decision. Charity realized that her mother had done her best as a mother when she handed her over to Mr. Royall. Therefore, this moment then helped solidify Charity's determination to do what she could, no matter how unwanted, to continue this theme of a mother's sacrifice for the sake of her.