The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1883-10-13

dress and q clean apron, and generally
carrying basket. e.
AS American hired girls had long
been study with us, and an interesting
one, we set ourselves to study Elise,
and soon discovered to which class she
belonged-the happy y-go-lucky class, who
are good natured and mean well, but
are careless, and break, spill, tear and
burn. She was seventeen, the Oldest Of
large family of children her mother,
a poor widow, lived in the country.
She received thirty thalers-or about
twenty-five dollars-a year, a new dress
at Christmas and another present on
her birthday. She slept in little bare
chamber under the roof, among the
cooling doves, and every morning early
was wakened from her slumbers by the
voice Of Fraulein calling up the stairs.
Her first duty was to kindle the fire in
! the kitchen stove, which she did by
means of small bundles of straw, using
little wood. Then she must mop up
the stone floor and sprinkle sand on 1t,
and scrsb the tile-paved hall. When
this was done she could pause few
moments to drink cup of black coffee
( and eat a couple of slices of brown
bread-the pumper-nickel of Westpha-
lia-with butter. Then she must polish
the brass mountings and utensils Of the
stove, and from that time go on con-
stantly, doing the chamberwork up
stairs, sweeping and dusting the sitting
and dining-rooms down stairs, running
out with her basket and few groschen
to buy something at one of the neigh
boring shops, peeling potatoes and pre-
pairing other vegetables, all the time
driven by the voice and presence Of
Fraulein.
In short, all the drudgery fell to her
lot. Her hands were hard and red, her
good-natured, ,ruddy face often smirched
her hair powdered with ashes or
feathers, and her apron marked with
signs of her work. In fact she had
genius for getting dirty, and Fraulein
made her wear two aprons, the top one
to be laid off when she ran out on err
rands. But her marked characteristic
was her destructiveness. 1t might be
said that her pathway was strewR with
broken dishes. The bedroom pitchers
were noseless and handleless through
her agency the lamp chimneys slipped
through her hands and shivered to
pieces ON the floor; rarely dish-wash-
ing passed that some cup, saucer, gravy
dish, tumbler or other article did not
come to grief at her hands. ..t
AS the price of everything broken
was charged against her, this unlucky
habit reduced her wages considerably,
but it did not seem to depress her spir-
it's Occasionally, on the breaking of
some more expensive article, such as
large soup tureen, she broke forth into
loud sobs, but it soon passed away and
she was as cheerful and smiling as
ever. Four students who lodged up
stairs took their dinners and suppers in
: the sitting-room of one of their number,
> and it was Elise's duty to carry up these
. meals on a large tray. This afforded
her fine opportunity to display her
individuality. Now one article, now
e another, would slip off the tray and
Ii break, and on more than one oc-
'e cssion she fell with the tray and
70 spilled the entire contents on the stairs.
N This was followed by loud and unre-
n strained weeping on her part, and a
5. severe scolding from Fraulein but the
r next time she ran up the steps singing,
IL and as careless as ever. Once in draw
IN ing cup of coffee from the brass urn
T which always stood on the stove, she
4, did not turn it of entirely, and the
ne coffee all ran out on the floor; and
III another time she threw all the soup out
lg of the window by mistake. She was
e, continually making blunders in laying
e, the table for meals, forgetting now the
nd spoons, now the napkins, now the
eirsatz, which held the salt, pepper
e. and mustard. When called to account
ed for her neglect, she came blushing and
oe with confusion of face, but nevel
" learned by experience to be more care
mt lul another time. She was never in
he trusted with any responsible part in th'
I'D cooking.
W Fraulein ATTENDED to all that her
self, so that her carelessness could no
show itself in burned OF ill-cooked food
~ but in her province she remained tru,
~ to her character. She shut up Frau
" lein's kid slippers in the oven one da,
'o' and burnt them to a crisp and one da
~ she came running in from the wash
~ kitchen in the back yard SCREAMING
Nv with fright, her dress and apron ablaze
Fraulein threw the contents of tn
y water bucket on her and extinguishe
" the flames, then sent her to her lii
tie room up in the roof to chang
-. her clothes and finish her cryin
10Y fit.
"a Elise seemed never to think of leavin
II her place, no matter how many har
nee seedlings she received, and never di
,dv played any sullenness or resentment
Lppincot's.
lies