"This is for Mrs. Means." That was the Housekeeper.
That is what I call you up two hours and a half before she rises, to do, I thought.
"How many of you are there that can do such work?" I asked.
"Five of us can do this kind, and we can all do fine stitching, or crochet, or some kind of fine needlework."
There were ten of them to do the work in the Housekeeper's rooms, and those of the Supervisor. Quite an array of talent!
"You ought to see Ann Horton's work. She does all kinds beautifully. She stays up-stairs, and works all of the time. She had a sentence of three years; it's most out now. It would do your eyes good to see the piles and piles of nice things she has done for the Master's wife and the young ladies. The pillow-cases, and the yokes, and bands, and skirts."
"Has she been doing embroidery all of the time for three years?"
"Yes, ma'am, and nice sewing."
I thought three years of hard labor, from five in the morning till eight at night, must accumulate quite an amount in value, of such work, beside what was done at intervals of two or three hours at a time, by the other nine women.
Supervisor might have exercised her thrift in supporting the institution, very profitably, by selling that embroidery as she proposed to do the moth-eaten rags. In doing that she might obviate the necessity of giving the officers skimmed milk in their tea.