BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD,
(SUCCESSORS TO PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO.)
1865.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by
WILLIAM T. ADAMS,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
ELECTROTYPED AT THE
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.
THE GOLD THIMBLE.
I.
Mr. Lee had a gardener whose name was Long. He lived in a little cottage near the great house of his employer. He was a very good gardener, and Mr. Lee valued him highly for his knowledge of plants, and for the fidelity with which the man served him.
Mr. Long had a family, but only three of his children remained at home. The others worked in the mills, or had places in the city. Mary, the youngest, was about Flora Lee’s age; and the other two at home were fourteen and sixteen.
Early in the winter Mrs. Long was taken sick, and for several weeks was confined to her bed. During this illness Susan took care of her mother, and did the house work besides, with the help of her father and her brother John.
Mrs. Lee thought this was too much for a girl of sixteen, and she wanted to send one of her servants down to the cottage to do the hardest of the work; but Susan declared she could do the whole very well indeed, and did not need any help.