They could not afford to keep a servant, and most of the house-work as well as the cooking fell to her share; Ethel and Carry devoting themselves to making articles for sale in the store and waiting upon customers.
Harry and Nannette too made themselves very useful out of school hours, doing errands and helping with the work about the house.
But Ethel did more than anyone else, so anxious was she to succeed in paying her way and making a living for them all. She was cheerful and happy, but greatly overworked; always very glad of the Sabbath rest, as they all were indeed, but eager to begin her labors again on Monday morning.
There was no one to watch over and warn her of the danger of overtasking her strength. Her uncles were so displeased that she was so determined to earn her own living and that of her younger brother and sisters, that they would not visit or assist her in any way, and naturally it was the same with their wives and children.
They saw nothing of each other on the Sabbath, Ethel choosing to attend a nearer church of the same denomination. They were all regular attendants upon the church services and at Bible-class and Sunday-school. Ethel and Blanche were in the same class and soon became greatly attached to their teacher, Miss Seldon, a lovely Christian woman who was deeply interested in all her scholars, but especially in this little family of orphans, struggling so hard to make their own way in the world. It soon became no unusual thing for her to call at their humble little home, invite their confidence, and, being a woman of means, in the kindest and most delicate manner render them assistance when she discovered that they were in any financial difficulty. But of that Ethel, in her pride of independence, would accept very little.
Miss Seldon did not know how hard and constantly the young girl worked, therefore did not warn her, as she certainly would had she known.
So things went on for nearly a year—all working industriously, but Ethel bearing the heaviest end of the burden, both physical and mental; for it was she who must plan how to meet all necessary payments. Often on waking in the morning she found it required a great effort to rise, dress, and resume her daily duties, and at last there came a time when the effort to do so was utterly vain; she could scarcely stir, and to rise from her couch was an impossibility.
She called to Blanche, and with her assistance finally succeeded in getting into her clothes and crawling downstairs to the store. Her breakfast was brought to her there, and having eaten it she took up her needlework, but it required a great exertion of will-power to do even that, while to run the sewing-machine was impossible.
“Oh, what ails me? what shall I do?” she exclaimed at length, dropping the work into her lap and clasping her hands together with a gesture of despair.
“You have been working too hard and constantly,” said Carry, “and will just have to take a rest.”