The Penn's Grove record., 1883-10-13
A German HOusemaid.

NNNAAh6 heA bAuC C1AA1s
dress and a clean apron, and generally
carrying a basket.
As American hired girls had Ions
been a study with us, and an interesting
one, we set ourselves to study Elise
and soon discovered to which class she
~belonged-the happy-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
a 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 a 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 vas to kindle the fire in
the Kitchen stove, which she did by
means of small bundles of straw, using
a little wood. Then she must mop up
the stone floor and sprinkle sand on it,
and scrsb the tile-paved hall. When
this was done she could pause a few
moments to drink a 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 busting the sitting
and diuing-rooms down stairs, running
out with her basket and a 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 rudy face often smirched
her hair powdered with ashes or
feathers, and her apron marked with
signs Of her work. In fact she had a
genius for getting dirty, and FTaulein
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 strewn 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 a dish-wash-
ing passed that some cup, saucer, gravy.
dish, lumber or other article did hot
come to grief at her hands.
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-
its. Occasionally, on the breaking of
some more expensive article, such a a
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 dutyto carry up these
meals on a large tray. This afforded
her a fine opportunity to display her
individuality. Now one article, now
another, would slip off the tray and
break, and on more than one &C.
cesion she fell with the tray and
spilled the entire contents ON the stairs.
This was followed by loud and unre-
strained weeping on her part, and a
evere scolding from FTaulein /; but the
next time she a up the steps singing,
and as careless as ever. Once in draw
ing a cup of coffee from the brass urn
which always stood ON the stove, she
did not turn it of entirely, and the
coffee all ran out on the floor; and
another time she threw all the soup out
of the window by mistake. She was
continually making hlunders in laying
the table for meals, forgetting now the
spoons, nov the napkins, now the
e%insatz, which held the salt, pepper
and mustard. When called to account
for her neglect, she came blushing and
with confusion of face, but neve
learned by experience to be more care
ful another time. She was never n-
trusted with any responsible part in the
cooking.
Fraulein attended to all that her
self, so that her carelessness could not
show itself in burned or ill-cooked food,
but in her province she remained true
to her character. She shut up Frau
lein's kid slippers in the oven one day
and burnt them to a crisp and one day
she came running in from the wash
kitchen in the back yard screaming
with fright, her dress and apron ablaze.
Fraulein threw the contents of the
water bucket on her and extinguished
the flames, then sent her to her lit
tie room up in the roof to change
her clothes and finish her crying
fit.
Elise seemed never to think of leaving
her place, nc matter how many hard
seedlings she received, and never dis
played any sullenness or resentment
Lippinc0t's.
Do norherald the sacrifices you make