ilk shawl the child had inherited and was bringing over as a chief bit
of finery. She had a delicate appetite for steerage fare, and ate up the
precious cheese Marie's mother had given for a parting gift. And she
took charge of Marie's bit of money, never returning it.

"If she had but left me my cheese," says the Svenska maid, "I might have
had something to eat between New York and Illinois. I just had my ticket
in the cars, and, oh, it was more than two days, and I had such feelings
in my stomach! I was all alone and speak not a word of English, and
everybody around me eat, but I would not try to ask for somethings. A
German family by me have lots to eat, and when they left the cars I got
down under the seat and pick up orange-peel they throw down, and eat
that. I could not sleep in the night, I feel so bad. And when I get to
Illinois and to Willingham, the Swede people not meet me yet, and a
woman took me to her house to get my dinner, I never taste anything so
good in my life, but I eat with my hat on. The woman tried to take it
off, and I hold on with both hands. I thought she was going to take my
hat for pay, and I could not do without it."

The little maid fell sick among her kin, and a great doctor's bill of a
year and a half accumulated upon her. The cousin's husband paid it and
added the debt to her passage-money. By the time she was able to work,
her pretty pale face had attracted an old man, and this persistent
suitor tormented her until she was wellnigh helpless in the hands of her
relatives. They set her debt before her, and reminded her of the
obligation she was under to marry a rich man.

"But I said, 'I won't, I won't, I won't,'" says Marie. "That is all the
English I could talk, and I would say, 'I won't.' Then my cousin told me
I must leave; I could not stay in her house. And I felt dreadful bad.
The young folks come in with provisions to see me: they made a party
because I was going away. And I notice that all kept being called into
the next room but me. I was weak yet, and it made me feel as if they
wanted to slight me. But last of all they called me into the next room,
and there was twenty-five dollar they had made up to give me. And I
cried; I could not talk and thank them, but just cried hard as I could
cry. Then I took that money and paid part of my debt, and got a good
place to work."

Marie is strong, willing, humble, and touchingly friendly in the
position of the Western "girl." She is amb