“Were there any children where you lived?”
“Not at Miss Armitage’s. That was where I was ill. She took me in, but I had to go back to Mrs. Borden’s when I was strong enough. 258 And then an old lady died and I fainted again and the doctor said it was something with the heart, and they had to take a bigger girl. Then I went to Miss Armitage again. She is so dear and sweet. I want to stay there always.”
“You poor child! You see we were in Western New York when your mother died and we didn’t hear of it in a long while. We should not have let you go to that Home. Were they good to you?”
“Well, you see some of the children were not very good, and they only gave you so much to eat. Sometimes you felt real hungry. I tried to be good for I didn’t like to be punished,” she said naively. “You had to scrub floors and learn psalms, when you didn’t get whipped. I liked the hymns, only they were not always sweet and pretty, and we went in school at nine and had one little recess. Then after dinner, and school until four, and if you missed you had to stay in. You sewed half an hour then and could play out of doors until six, then you had supper and went to bed.”
“What kind of sewing was it?” 259
“Oh, you hemmed towels and sheets and pillow cases, and mended. The little girls couldn’t, so you had to look after their things, and darn their stockings. On Saturday afternoon one of the teachers took you out walking but it was in the woods and the country. All the girls were so glad when they were twelve or almost, so they could get away. Mrs. Johnson was very sharp.”
“And the lady you went to live with?”
“Oh she was very nice; and her sister. There was a boy of five and twin babies—”
“You didn’t have to take care of the babies?”
“Only to play with them and amuse them. They were very fat and Mrs. Borden didn’t like me to lift them. Then I used to wheel them in their carriage. I liked that only when it was very cold—or hot. The stores were so pretty, and you met other girls. I used to read the books in the windows; Jack had lots of books. I used to show the pictures to the babies and tell them stories and they would laugh so, just as if they understood it all. They were very good and merry, but it was a long while before they could walk, they were so fat.” 260