h no more clothes of any kind than what she had on.
I immediately gave her money to purchase what was necessary for
cleanliness and decency, and set to work with my daughters to
make her a gown. She grinned applause when our labour was
completed, but never uttered the slightest expression of
gratitude for that, or for any thing else we could do for her.
She was constantly asking us to lend her different articles of
dress, and when we declined it, she said, "Well, I never seed
such grumpy folks as you be; there is several young ladies of my
acquaintance what goes to live out now and then with the old
women about the town, and they and their gurls always lends them
what they asks for; I guess you Inglish thinks we should poison
your things, just as bad as if we was Negurs." And here I beg to
assure the reader, that whenever I give conversations they were
not made A LOISIR, but were written down immediately after they
occurred, with all the verbal fidelity my memory permitted.
This young lady left me at the end of two months, because I
refused to lend her money enough to buy a silk dress to go to a
ball, saying, "Then 'tis not worth my while to stay any longer."
I cannot imagine it possible that such a state of things can be
desirable, or beneficial to any of the parties concerned.
I might occupy a hundred pages on the subject, and yet fail to
give an adequate idea of the sore, angry, ever wakeful pride that
seemed to torment these poor wretches. In many of them it was so
excessive, that all feeling of displeasure, or even of ridicule,
was lost in pity. One of these was a pretty girl, whose natural
disposition must have been gentle and kind; but her good feelings
were soured, and her gentleness turned to morbid sensitiveness,
by having heard a thousand and a thousand times that she was as
good as any other lady, that all men were equal, and women too,
and that it was a sin and a shame for a free-born American to be
treated like a servant.
When she found she was to dine in the kitchen, she turned up her
pretty lip, and said, "I guess that's 'cause you don't think I'm
good enough to eat with you. You'll find that won't do here."
I found afterwards that she rarely ate any dinner at all, and
generally passed the time in tears. I did every thing in my
power to conciliate and make her happy, but I am sure she hated
me. I gave her very high wages, and she staid till she had
obtained several expensive articles of dr
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