Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1843-09-01
THE POOR RELATION.
by ABBOTT LEE.
[ Concluded.l

The morning which succeeded that on
which the Poor Relation had so exposed her
vulgar poverty al Swan Vale, found its fair
---no-itS deep red mistress in a sad state of
nervous excitement She burned with in
tense and indignant excitement to turn that
abominable Miss Malapropos out of her hos
pitabe doors; but then-if she had only
been better behaved--ii' she only had been
either less bl"n!2r;aS vi less mischievous-
what an acquisition she would have proved,
have kept her with them!
Every body declared that they never, no
never, had spent such delightful evening in
the whole course Of their lives. The oldest,
who had so much to forget, and the youngest,
who had so much to remember, all declared
that Mrs. Mackillops company that night
was perfect cream. Never had they been
so well amused, never so delightfully."- enter
tanned, as at dear Mrs. Mackillop's. And
then that dear queer piece of drollery, that
Poor Relation, she was treat in herself
1t was so iudicious of kind Mrs. Mackillop to
bring such an orginal-so amusing-so SIM
ple--Such character-amongst them. In
fact, it was perfectly true that the Poor Re-
lation had made herself the lion of the party.
What for wonder and what for wantonncss,
she had been the observed of all observers.
Her playing was that of protessor-she had
guttrelled German with IA Hamburgher, and
lisred Italian with Neapotan; and sung
duets with all the ladies, and danced quadril-
les with all the gentlemen and in short, had
fulfilled her promise of helping Mrs. Macl<ll-
lop to entertain her company both in the let
ter and the spirit.
what a governess she would make fo
the chldrenr exclaimed Mrs. Mackillop
sbut then what nuisance she would be Il
myself! How splenddly she played, bu
then how provokingly shetalked German
Italian, and French, she had at her finger
ends-not your tongues that nobody coul
understand; French, that you must be toll
that it is French; and German that wants t
be labelled and Italian like English in dis
guise-but the real genuine languages. A
the true smack and flavor, like their own sua
sages, strong and unmisakable upon then
And then such paying-why they woul
hire her at the opera and singing-l hay
her squalls ringing through my head now! =
Why, such proficient in every thing as 81
is, she might easily have hundred year
u
thing-or for some ten pounds or soar
perhaps her washing-why what bargain
would be! But then, on the other hand,
be subjected to such nuisance of creatur
thing that neither cares northnks what 81
says! wild, harum-scarum, sort of gon
mad PERSONA crack Drained affair tn
won't hold her tongue, and won't be sile
ced, that won't take a wink, Or hear an asd
or understand frown-why who could t.
crate such an ellronting absurdity! Still,
could tame her, she would be very uset
If Rachel could play and sing in her style
there are many men,, especially Idle RI
men, who are caught by the ear; well,
any rate, have got her for week or tv
and must see if | cannot reduce her to u
full order. fl find it impossible, must
course contrve to atlront her, and get rid
her-I should think could easily do th
Mrs. Mackilop having thus mentally
ranged her line of tactics, proceeded at OIL
to put her plans into execution. A cert
inmate perception that she was exceedin
likely to be worsted in personal encoun
of words with the Poor Relation, induced
like many other cowardly people, to shr
out of lirsl-hand conflict with her, and c
sequenty, instead of speaking plainly,
commenced a system of man9uvrng.
first step was TO order her own breakfast
her dressing-room, on the plea of ndisp
ton, and the chdren's in the schoolroom
that the Poor Relation might be drilled
knowing that Abernethy's chairs, weak
and the nursery, were to fall to her share
her second was to instruct her boys to ask
German lessons, merely by way of occl
ton, and the girls to request that she w
Just be so good as to help them in the
nounciation of few French words. or a
them in translaling page or two of ltal
then one was 10 ask her to develope a
new stitches of embroidery, and anoth'
rcques, lesson in her pretty little Ii
hand but above all, each of the girls W
extract singing lesson and music LEI
to be as long as possible, and this without
fail, since it was most of all matter Of