Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1883-06-28
A Swedish Servant.
Caroline E.Leighton in Atlantic.

CarO1ne ELelgntOn In Atlantlc.
We found her at an employment Of
fee, just arrived from Sweden, and as
noticed her sunny hair and blue eyes,
and strong, free stop, thought of what
some one said of Jenny Lind: that she
ought TO have been called the Swedish
Lioness, rather than the Swedish Night
ingale, from the freedom and strength
of her bearing. Not able to speak
word of English, she sat looking at me
with such confident blue eyes that no
one could feel otherwise than kindly
towards her, when the world seemed to
her such fair, honest place
She held out a little book, printed in
Swedish and English, by which we were
to converse together. l looked it over,
and saw that it contained directions,
given to servants in their own country,
by which they We're to conduct them-
selves. Among other things, they were
told to ''step softly, move lightly, and
desire nothing"
After came to know more of her in
tensely social nature, often wondered
.iow she survived the first few weeks,
when we never attempted anything
more in the way of conversation than
coup" plate" etc. At length, in an
outburst of desperation, she exclaimed,
| Il want to talkw So did we, but the
difficulty was how to begin. She solved
it herself by asking if we knew George
Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
| W. -, Is la 4 -,
neus and Swedenborg, to both of which
questions she replied in the affirmative,
and also recognized with delight, a pic
ture of Luther. After this, conversa-
ton became easy; she was so very apt
and eager. She was soon able to give
u little account of her voyage; telling us
how she, with a hundred other girls,
came as steerage passengers, on great
steamer; and how, in leaving, they sang
together the Fatherland Song; and how
the passengers on the upper deck all
clapped their hands, as well they might
if the other voices were like hers. They
had great luncheon baskets; but she lost
hers overheard, in a storm, and also
her hat. "NOw L must every day say
to some one, please give me little
bread. ," In the storm she thought, by
and by dead" 1t is wonderful, the
courage of these girls, starting alone
for an unknown world. Some of her
friends in Sweden, she said, thought
that TO come to America they would
have to travel through the earth. But
she had been taught otherwise al
school; taught also to knit, embroider.
crochet, and make baskets. The dress
she had on she had not only fitted fol-
herself, but had made the wooden cloth
for it, and had woven her plaid shawl
She wore generally, on her head, lit
tie black shawl. One day she said to
me, touching it, "Every woman in
Sweden all the same"
She readily understood that we en-.
joyed hearing about her country, as she
took so much interest herself in learn
ing everything possible. She soon be.
gan to tell us about the Lapps, as the
most curious little people in the world
very short, but wearing tall, pointed
hoods, made of reindeer skin. She al.
ways talked with great enthusiasm
about the "rein," as she called the
reindeer: said that if man had a thou.
sand rein he was rich; that The Lapps
| ttaNCiCu thC tiihC, Oul1 ldsSO'
ing some rein and travelling on to find
moss for them,> the rein furnishing
them with all their food. When they
went to church they left their babies
outside in holes in the snow, sewed up
in skins. They themselves wore one
garment of skin. Swedish babies had
a little knit garment, that covered
them all over, arms, legs, and feet.
Lapp babies were always cold, and the
Lapps were very, very poor. | asked,
why not come TO Bostonp" She
answered, "Oh, Lapp say Lapland
good" She Knocked their funny ways
of talking, in monosyllables. They
could not open their mouths, she said;
it was so cold. She used TO mock. too,
the peasants walk,-stiff, ungainly
strides; crouching as they went along,
because it was so cold. 1t was very
different from reading these things in
the geography to hear them from one
who had actually seen them, and touch