The Weston Democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1875-current, 1875-10-25
An UNHAPPY LIFE.
The English Parm I.aborcr's Daughter. md
the Manner In which she Lives nnd Is
TreufNd.

the Manner In which she Lives nnd Is
Treated.
At seven or eight years old the girls
labor begins. Before that she has been
set to mind the baby, or watch the pot,
and to scour about the hedges for sticks
for the fire. Now she has not only to
mind the baby, but to nurse it; she cur
ries it about with her iu her arms, and
really the infant looks almost rs large Us
herself and its weight compels her to
lean backward. She is left at home MI
day in charge Of the baby, the younger
children and the cottage. Perhaps a
little bread is left for them to eat, but
they get nothing more till the mother
returns about 4:30, when WOO be to the
girl il the fire is not Lit, and the kettle
on. The girl has to fetch the water-
often o hard and tedious task, for many
villages have most imperfect supply,
and you lQay see the ditches by the road
side damned up to yield little dirty
water. She may have TO walk half II
mile TO the brook, md then carry the
bucket home as best she may, and repeat
the operation till sufficient has been nc.
duired, and when her mother is washing,
or worse still is q washerwoman by pro.
iession, this is her weary trudge oil day.
OF course there are villages where water
is ut hand, sometimes too much OF it. |
know large village where tile brook
runs beside the highway, aud you have
to pass over "drock or small bridge
to get to each OF the cottages, but such
instances are raro. The girl has also to
walk into the adjacent town md bring
back the bread, particularly ii her mother
happens to be receiving parish pay. A
little older-at ton or eleven or twelve
still moro skinny and bony now as rule,
she follows her mother to the fields, and
learns to pick up stones from the young
moving grass, and place them in heaps
to DO carted away to mend drinking
places for cattle. She learns to beat
clots md spread them with q small
prong she works in tho bayfield, and
CLEANS ut the corn.harvest. Cleaning
poetical gleaning-is the most unplGas-
ant and uncomfortable OF labor, tedious,
slow, backaching work; picking up ear
by ear the dropped wheat, searching
among the prickly stubble. Nothwith-
standing all her labor. and the hardship
she has to endure-cOnse fare and
rhurlish treatment ut tho hands OF those
who should love her most-the little
agricultural girl still retains some of
that natural inclination toward the
pretty and romantic inherent in the sex.
Iu the spring she makes daisy chains
and winds them round the baby's neck !;
or with the stalks OF the daudelion makes
II chain several feet in length. She
plucks great punches OF the beautiful
bluebell, and Of the purple orchis of the
meadow ; gathers heaps of the cowslip,
aud after playing with them II little
while, they are left 10 wither in the dust
by tho roadside, while she is seIt two or
three miles with her fathers dinner.
She chants srIatches Of rural songs, and
sometimes three or four together, join.
ing hands, dance slowly round and
round; singing slowly rude rhymes de-
acribing marriage. She Inns no toys
not one in twenty such girls ever have a
doll =; or, il they do, it is but some stick
dressed i'll II rg. Poor things they
need 10 artificial dolls 80 soon as ever
they can lift it they are trusted with the
real baby. Her parents probably do
not mean to be unkind, and use makes
this treatment bearable, but to M out
siler it seems unnecessarily rough, and
even brutal. Her mother shouts at her
III n sllril treble perpelunl!y; her father
cntorccs his orders with a harsh oOth
and n slAp.-frascr's Magazine.