Part 19 (2/2)
”I mean to,” said Maid Sally.
After the French lesson was over, Sally lingered in the parson's library.
”I gave thee the next reading, did I not?” asked Parson Kendall.
”Yes, I know about the lesson, sir,” replied Sally, ”but I know not where I had better go. I have no home.”
”No home?” repeated the parson, ”how is that? Hath the woman Mistress Brace cast thee out?”
Sally turned pale, so great was her fright and her desire to cry. But a single word from her Fairy helped her:
”Courage!”
”I refused to buy tea at the apothecary man's,” she said, ”and Mistress Brace called me a beggar, and bade me go and not return. I cannot be called a beggar, nor can I go back, when I have been told to stay away.”
Parson Kendall toyed with his watch-fob, looked at the braided mat on which he stood, and seemed studying the pattern of the border. After what seemed a long time to Sally, he said:
”Sit thee down for a moment, poor maid. I would speak with Goodwife Kendall for a s.p.a.ce. Be not timorous, all may yet be well with thee.”
Sally sank into a chair as the parson disappeared.
”I've done it!” she said to her Fairy.
”Yes, and without many words,” answered her Fairy. ”That is always the best way to do that to which one has made up the mind.”
Then Sally fell a-thinking. But so quickly beat her heart that she could scarcely sit still. And it beat all the faster when the door opened and Goodwife Kendall, in a rustling black silk, with soft muslin collar and cuffs, and a lace cap upon her head, stood before her.
”I hear you have not so good a home, little maid,” she said, in a fine, low voice, ”as would beseem thee, and the minister has no mind to send thee back to it. So here is a plan. My two servants are faithful at their tasks, but there is much needlework that is needful to be done. My two sisters are to tarry with me for the present, and much visiting must be enjoyed.
”There are certain duties to be attended to in the minister's family, and in his library, which it is not befitting that servants should be trusted with. Would it suit thee to be my helper for a time?”
”Oh, indeed, and indeed,” cried Sally, stopping to choke for an instant, ”I will so gladly and most faithfully do anything you may ask; and I shall need nothing at present, I have clothes--”
”Tut, tut, child!” said Goodwife Kendall, with a smile. ”No one should work well to receive nothing in return, and I shall give thee two and sixpence a week, both to teach thee how to use a little money wisely, and also to pay for what I know thou wilt justly earn.”
And seeing that Sally was at the point of bursting out crying, she added, while turning toward the door:
”Come, now, Parson Kendall will send to Mistress Brace for such clothes as you have bought for yourself, leaving all for which she has paid. It will please me to clothe thee with what may be needful from time to time. But there are dried berries to be picked over and put in soak before being stewed for supper. Come and let me show thee how to prepare them.”
CHAPTER XVII.
THE SOLDIER'S CARD
”O Fairy! Fairy! is not this grand?”
Maid Sally stood in a little room, so neat, so prettily furnished, that it was to her like waking up and finding one of her pleasant dreams come true.
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