“You must learn fresh words, honey,” said Ann Johns. “In our part of England we don’t say the words you use.”
“Oh, thin, faix, to be sure, I expect ye don’t. Ye haven’t got what I call a cosy, cossetty, nice, consolin’ sort ov word amongst ye; never was there a colder place, an’ me heart’s broke intirely!” The poor child burst into tears. “It’s Mary Welsh they’re going to put on me to-day,” she said, after a pause; and, as she uttered these words, both Johns and his wife approached the child and each took possession of an arm.
“What are you trying to say, missy?” asked Mrs. Johns.
“Oh, thin, wurra, nothing at all, only it’s Mary Welsh they’re putting on me to-day. Whoever be she, bedad?”
“You’re in luck if she’s coming! Why, she’s as Irish as yourself, only she knows just how to manage. She’ll teach you beautiful. Oh, you’ll love her!”
“Mary, for the love of heaven, don’t say another word about her, for, if ye do, as sure as me name’s Peggy Desmond, I’ll hate her! Don’t ye praise her, woman, for, if ye do, hate her I will! Now, thin, I’ll be off. I suppose ye haven’t a nice little hin that ’u’d like a bit of breakfast that I could give to the crature, it would ease me heart like.”
Mrs. Johns rushed into one of the stables, filled a dish full of corn, took it out to Peggy, and said, “There, dear, feed the little hens round the corner, and then go back to your bed, because if the family see you they’ll be really angry.”
So Peggy did go back to her bed, crept into it, and, what is more, fell asleep, wondering as she sank into the land of dreams who this extraordinary Mary Welsh was who would help her, and whom everybody seemed to love.
“But I’ll hate her,” thought Peggy; “it’s the way with me. I hate thim whom other folks praise; it’s a sort of twist I have in me nature, bedad.”
A servant came in to call Peggy, and also offered to help her to dress, and Peggy submitted, and was, on the whole, apparently quite a good little girl this morning. The nice maid brushed out the child’s soft, beautiful hair, and took her hand and led her to the schoolroom.