ning
being delayed, I didn't seem to know how to manage. Martha is good at
making over, and there are two very good coats of Artemas's that she
would do the right thing by; while there was a good many who could scrub
and clean as well as she,--there was that Nora that used to live at
Patty's. But Mrs. Norris did not take to Nora. The Wylies tried her, but
could make nothing out of her. I said I thought it would be hard to find
the person Mrs. Wylie could get on with. Not that I ever knew anything
about her till she came to live on our street last winter, but they do
say she's just as hard on her own family; for there's a story that she
won't let that pretty daughter of hers, Clara, marry Bob Prince's son,
Larkin.

Mrs. Norris said she didn't wonder, for Larkin Prince hadn't found
anything to do since he came home. I thought there was enough to live
upon in the Wylie family, even if Larkin didn't find something the first
minute he'd got his education.

* * * * *

I can see that Mrs. Norris didn't take it well that I was not willing to
give up Martha; but I don't really see why I should be the one to give
up. But I must say I haven't got on as well with the work as I had
hoped, Lavinia's going with the boys so much keeps her clothes half torn
off her back, and I can't seem to see how to make her tidy. I was real
ashamed when I went to lift her out of a mud-puddle yesterday outside
the gate; and there was Clara Wylie looking as clean as a white lily,
and she stopped to help her out. It seemed that Lavinia had left her
boot in the last mud-puddle, and I would have liked to have gone through
the ground. I hope it will be a lesson to Lavinia, for Miss Wylie
oughtn't to have touched her with her hand. But she did, yellow gloves
and all, and said it was dreadful walking now, the frost so late coming
out of the ground, and she had quite envied Lavinia running across the
fields after the boys. But Lavinia has taken to envying Miss Wylie, and
wishes she could wear that kind of boots she has, with high heels that
keep her out of the mud-puddles.

* * * * *

I am thinking of having my ruby cashmere colored over. I don't seem to
feel like ripping it all up, pleatings and all; but Mrs. Peebles says
it can be dipped just as well made up, and I needn't take out a seam.
I might have it a kind of dark olive, like Mrs. Carruthers' dress.

* * * *