The herald., 1897-01-24
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! WELCOME FRIEND :
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
BY BEATRICE wHIIBY


betters, but there is an interest to be
| found in truth, I'm told, so, though
| don't know the knack of making your
hair stand on end, I'll say my say out.
If you want something stirring to read
you should buy the local paper down
| here at RidSeway-on-Sea, and you will
| find column of horrors awful wicked
things set down to teach and amuse us
poor folk, who don't care for leading
| articles nor yet for politics.
What they put in the papers is true,
| so I'm told. but you know that the tale
l have to tell is the truth and nothing
| but the truth, for l was acquainted with
| the girl myself
She was not much to look at but then
people don't match inside and outside,
| l assure you they don't.
There are girls like my mistress's best
bonnet: outside. all flowers, chiffon, and
smartneSs; inside, no decent lining at
all. nothing but a soled and frayed cot
ton net, not fit to be seen.
She was not a fortunate girl from the
first, being born and reared in the work.
house. There is no kind of coddling, or
fondling or humoring for the little ones
there. No waste of anything at all, all
comforts clipped close as the children ;
heads.
The word workhouse takes the very
heart out of those who know best what
it is.
Rich folk talk about the blessing and
beauty of work, but lord bless you, that
is the sort of work they make for them
selves, not such as is met with in the
house of that name, nor yet such as is
done by the general servant in lodgings.
Ellen Scott was sixteen or thereabouts
when l first saw her. She came TO our
next door neighbor Mrs. Butler. as maid
of all work; the poor soul had a hard
place and hard mistress to match it,
mostly they go together.
All through that season the weather
was fine and sitting hot and the lodg-
ings were full. Three sets of them there
were, every room full and oerful of
pleasure-seek and the stairs enough
to scare man. All through that season
the slip of a girl did the work of the
house single-handed. l said did the
work of the house." but I'm wrong: it
was not all done, but she did what she
could.
1t was the number OF meals that
confused her, twelve regular laid-outs
day, not reckoning tea. Then the
stairs tried her and the aching of her
swollen feet and worn-out legs wouldn't
let her sleep when she did get off to her
pallet bed in the hot attic.
She had no method with her work, for
none had been taught her. 1t was run,
run, run, all the livelong day. she had
not time so much as to wash the smuts
off her face or to put her cap straight or
her hair. She got dull and da1ed in her
head with being tired out. Then the
bells. how they rang. l heard them
Changing next door and she'd forget this
and that till the dodgers would scold,
or sneer. or laugh at her, according to
their humor
They laughed mostly, for she was a
queer-looking girl, not fully grown,
round in the back, very long -limbed and
f1at-waisted, with a thick lot of hair
fixed up in lump on the top of her head.
Her eyes were pale, washed out, with a
spiritless, patient look in them, for all
the world like the look of one of the
donkeys for hire on the sands.
1t was not often that Mrs. Butler
kept a servant beyond her month, for
she was a bad mistress, rough with her
hands, and sharp with her tongue, but
Ellen stayed on.
l wondered at her for stopping, for
she got thin as bird cage, and looked
tagged out and worn, being driven from
sun to sun.
Thinking and doing is about the same
with me, so one evening I slipped in
next door and asked the girl:
why in the name of goodness didn't
she suit kerself with another and an
tresses," says l, who know a steady,
good girl when they see one. You give
warning and leave at the end of your
month
She shook her head.
There's a little chap come" she said,
smiling kind of smile with her lips
she might have been a gentle folk she
smiled so quiet and never out with good
laugh. He is such a nice little chap,
ap nd ha "a to ba hos
derful to me-
She looked so proud and spirited-up
that was half out of patience with her,
knowing what children are for making
extra work and worrit Yet I stayed on
a bit to hear what she'd got to say
telling and talking being a cheap amuse-
ment for poor folk
The little chap" it turned out, be-
longed to the dining room dodgers; per-
manent dodgers they We're, and they'd
got the rooms cheap, for they had taken
them for the whole winter. The lady
was pretty looking enough. l soon got
to know her by sight; she was a real
lady" Mrs. Butler said, and she never
moved finger to help herself, but lay
on the sofa mostly when she wasn't
curling her yellow hair, or walking up
and down the seawall, dressed very
smart. Her husband was with her, but
he wasn't Of much count, being dullisn,
pale-loOking ger tleman, with q pen in
his hand best part of the day. scribbling
very slow ana laboriously, on foolscap
paper. with which sclibbes, Ellen
says, he makes his living.
1t was not 50 good a living as the lady
would have liked. For she was always
grumbllng and talking Of her old home,
which was very large house cut in the
country. \ nice house it was, but lok.ly;
there was a rough path leading ziz-zag
three miles over the downs, to get to it,
But they never went there; her father
lived alone, and would not see her, nor
hear from her, nor take no manner of
notice of her for you see, she had mar
rled against his wishes, because she liked
those writings of the poor, pale gentle
man in Old times-though she seemed
pretty sick of both the writing and her
gentleman now.
The little boy, BASIL was a cry sickly-
looking child he was born with a mis-
fortune tied to him for lifc-he'd a plan
face. 1t was the sort of misfortune his
mother couldn't overlook, for the lady
thought all the world of appearance
of what else she thought l never heard
He was the quietest child you ever saw.
no noise nor lcmping about him. 1t was
always Hush, hush, hush" to the boy
all the day long. 1t was hush" for the
father to write, it was hush for the
mother to read, it was "hushing" so
much that Master Basil had grown ner-
vous; he seemed to feel he wasn't the
sort as pleased people, ard he'd stay in
his bedroom alone when he could and
would flush cp and tremble when it
came to meal time and he had to go down