“No—she will not expect that—but
Barby will want a different kind of managing from
those Irish women of yours. She won’t bear
to be spoken to in a way that don’t suit her
notions of what she thinks she deserves; and perhaps
your aunt and uncle will think her notions rather high—I
don’t know.”
“There is no difficulty with aunt Lucy,”
said Fleda;—“and I guess I can manage
uncle Rolf—I’ll try. I like
her very much.”
“Barby is very poor,” said Mrs. Plumfield;
“she has nothing but her own earnings to support
herself and her old mother, and now I suppose her
sister and her child; for Hetty is a poor thing—never
did much, and now I suppose does nothing.”
“Are those Finns poor, aunt Miriam?”
“O no—not at all—they
are very well off.”
“So I thought—they seemed to have
plenty of everything, and silver spoons and all.
But why then do they go out to work?”
“They are a little too fond of getting money
I expect,” said aunt Miriam. “And
they are a queer sort of people rather—the
mother is queer and the children are queer—they
ain’t like other folks exactly—never
were.”
“I am very glad we are to have Barby instead
of that Lucy Finn,” said Fleda. “O
aunt Miriam! you can’t think how much easier
my heart feels.”
“Poor child!” said aunt Miriam looking
at her. “But it isn’t best, Fleda,
to have things work too smooth in this world.”
“No, I suppose not,” said Fleda sighing.
“Isn’t it very strange, aunt Miriam, that
it should make people worse instead of better to have
everything go pleasantly with them?”
“It is because they are apt then to be so full
of the present that they forget the care of the future.”
“Yes, and forget there is anything better than
the present, I suppose,” said Fleda.
“So we mustn’t fret at the ways our Father
takes to keep us from hurting ourselves?” said
aunt Miriam cheerfully.
“O no!” said Fleda, looking up brightly
in answer to the tender manner in which these words
were spoken;—“and I didn’t mean
that this is much of a trouble—only
I am very glad to think that somebody is coming to-morrow.”
Aunt Miriam thought that gentle unfretful face could
not stand in need of much discipline.
Wise men alway
Affyrme and say,
That best is for a man
Diligently,
For to apply,
The business that he can.
More.
Fleda waited for Barby’s coming the next day
with a little anxiety. The introduction and installation
however were happily got over. Mrs. Rossitur,
as Fleda knew, was most easily pleased; and Barby Elster’s
quick eye was satisfied with the unaffected and universal
gentleness and politeness of her new employer.
She made herself at home in half an hour; and Mrs.
Rossitur and Fleda were comforted to perceive, by unmistakeable
