Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-09-08
A MORMON WAY.

A MORMON WAY.
The circumstances under which we
took Janet were a little peculiar, but
there seemed to be no help for it. l was
i'll with neuralgia and the baby cross,
and cook had vanished like the Arab
'tsilently stole away"-only the articles
she took were of more value than the
''way." Janet presented herself, and
looked the treasure that we soon found
her to be. She had Just landed, she
said, from the Old Country, and had
heard from an old friend, Mrs. Baker,
that Twas in need of q servant, and lost
no time in applying for the situation.
OF cours she had no references, and if
there had been smooth sailing at our
house l would not have been so rash as
to engage her at once. But 1 did it, and
within a month had decided that I had
done wisely. Janet on her part made
n stipulation, and that was that. I keep
no other servant. She said she was
willing and able to do all the work of
the house. She had resolved long ago
to never serve in any family where she
could not be entirely alone in doing it.
1t was such an extraordinary event for a
person to want extra work that I was
surprised but only too willing to accede
to her terms in that respect. We lived
in a small city about one hundred miles
from the seaboard, and sshelp'' was
never too plenty.
Janet brought up the rear of a long
series of incapables who condescended
to accept our wages in consideration of
their w incapacity, and we did not at
first believe in her virtues-we called
her, between ourselves, the snew
broom"-but as time wore on she be-
came a treasure in every sense of the
word. We came finally to look upon
her as the devoted friend of the family.
She appeared to have no other object in
life than our comfort and well-being.
Not that she eve said so, or that she
was at all demonstrative. She was far
from that-in fact, no one could be less
so-but all her actions went to show it.
She was a woman of, [ should Judge,
forty years of age when she first came
to us. She had been a servant in first
class families in the .'Old Country" and
had that look of concentration in her
face that we SO seldom see in the coun-
%tenances of domestics in America. She
told me on first coming that she could
neither read or write, which L thought
a great pity, but she did not seem to
care about it. She said she had more
time to see about her proper business
than those who were in the habit of
reading when they should be working;
but, if she could not read, 1 soon found
her memory to be excellent. Having
read a cooking recipe to her once, 1
never had to repeat it, even if it were
months before 1 ordered the article
again. If anything was misplaced in
the house, it was Janet who always
found it Or could remember having seen
it. [ got in the way of telling her a
great deal of our Gins and outs" and
quite enjoyed %conversing with her about
any little affair l was interested in; and
her suggestions and counsel, though
never offered unless asked, and then in
the most modest and humble way, were
often Of great value to me. She v
intruded on us with any familiarity in
consequence of our partially for her.
But she was not an angel by any
means, as one might suppose after
hearing this account of her. Her tenn
per was often On a "high'' for days to-
gether, and she made it quite uncom-
Portable for us, as every knowing
servant can do. Not by d%isrespectful
words 81 any %inattention to specified
orders, but by neglecting the little
things that she was so famous for re-
membering, and by frequently tossing
her head and muttering unintelli gible
phrases. She never broke any dishes
in my house, but the way she ratified
them about on her sdays' made me
tremble for my china. When we were
awakened in the morning by the shut
tiers banging open, and the windows
slammed. and all the hosts of the
C%haldeans tramping about IN the
kitchen, we knew that one of Janet's
tantrums was on hand, and you may be
sure the children avoided her domains
for that day. We were so heartily fond
OF her that these outbreaks, which in
another servant would have been fol-
lowed by dismissal, we quietly ignored,
and accepted the evil along with 80
much good that its baleful influence was
scarcely minded. I early found that to
soothe or coax her in any way only
made matters worse, and the best
remedy l ever hit upon was giving her
a little extra work to do. AS she was
the only servant we kept, we could
easily do that.
When my little boy was i'll, and grad
ually faded away from us, Janet's kind
sympathy was untiring. 1 shall never
cease to remember her devotion during
those sorrowful times. 1t was into her
faithful arms I laid him when fatigue
and exhaustion compelled me to take
rest, and when the last moments of his
dear life had passed away it was Janet
who sustained my fainting form, and to
whose prudence and care I owe my w
after a long illness.
By these things and q thousand others