'Lizbeth of the Dale. Mary Esther Miller MacGregor

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      "Good-afternoon, Sarah Emily," she remarked frigidly.

      The young person was apparently unabashed by her chilling reception. She took one stride to the green bench that stood against the house and dropped upon it, letting her carpet-bag fall with a thud to the floor. She stretched out her feet in their thick muddy boots, untied her pink hat strings, and emitted a sounding sigh.

      "Laws—a—day, but I'm dead dog-tired," she exclaimed cordially.

      Miss Gordon looked still severer. Evidently Sarah Emily had returned in no prodigal-son's frame of mind. Ordinarily the mistress would have sharply rebuked the girl's manner of speech, but now she bent to her work with an air of having washed her hands finally of this stubborn case.

      But Sarah Emily was of the sort that could not be overawed by any amount of dignity. She was not troubled, either, with a burdensome sense of humility—no, not even though this was the third time she had "given notice," and returned uninvited.

      "Well," she exclaimed at length, as though Miss Gordon were arguing the case with her, "I jist had to have a recess. There ain't no one could stand the penoeuvres of that young Lizzie, an' the mud she trailed all over the kitchen jist after I'd scrubbed!"

      Miss Gordon showed no signs of sympathy. She felt some, nevertheless, and suppressed a sigh. Elizabeth certainly was a trial. She deigned no remark, however, and Sarah Emily continued the one-sided conversation all unabashed.

      "I hoofed it every fut o' the road," she remarked aggrievedly.

      Miss Gordon took a new thread from her ball and fitted it into her needle with majestic dignity.

      Sarah Emily was silent a moment, then hummed her favorite song.

      "My grandmother lives on yonder little green,

       As fine an old lady as ever was seen,

       She has often cautioned me with care,

       Of all false young men to beware!

      "I couldn't abide that there Mrs. Oliver another five minutes. She had too stiff a backbone for me, by a whole pail o' starch."

      Miss Gordon's face changed. Here was news. Sarah Emily had been at service in town during her week's absence, and not only that, she had actually been in one of its most wealthy and influential families! To Miss Gordon, the town, some three miles distant, was a small Edinburgh, and she pined for even a word from someone, anyone, there who moved in its social world. She longed to hear more, but realized she could not afford to relax just yet.

      "Perhaps you will understand now what it means to be under proper discipline," she remarked.

      "Well, I wasn't kickin' about bein' under that, whatever it is. It was bein' under her thumb I couldn't abide—makin' me wear a white bonnet in the afternoons, jist as if I was an old granny, an' an apron not big enough for a baby's bib!"

      Miss Gordon longed to rebuke the girl sharply, but could not bear to lose the glimpse of real genteel life.

      "She has one girl an' one boy—an' that there boy! She'd dress him up in a new white get-up, 'bout every five minutes, an' he'd walk straight outside an' wallow in the mud right after. I thought I'd a' had to stand an' iron pants for that young heathen till the crack o' doom, an' I had just one pair too many so I had. An' I up an' told her you'd think she kep' a young centipede much less a human boy with only two legs to him. And then I up and skedaddled."

      Miss Gordon's conscience added its protest to that of her dignity, and she spoke.

      "I prefer that you should not discuss your various mistresses with me, Sarah Emily. I can have nothing to do with your affairs now, you see."

      Sarah Emily lilted the refrain of her song:

      "Timmy—eigh timmy—um, timmy—tum—tum—tum,

       Of all false young men to beware!

      "Would you like muffins or pancakes for supper?" she finished up graciously.

      Miss Gordon hesitated. Sarah Emily was a great trial to genteel nerves, but she was undeniably a great relief from much toilsome labor that was quite incompatible with a genteel life. Sarah Emily noticed her hesitation and went on:

      "When Mrs. Jarvis came she had me make muffins every morning for breakfast."

      Miss Gordon dropped her knitting, completely off her guard.

      "Why, Sarah Emily!" she cried, "you don't mean—not Elizabeth's Mrs. Jarvis."

      Sarah Emily nodded, well-pleased.

      "Jist her, no less! She's been visitin' Mrs. Oliver for near a month now, an' she was askin' after Lizzie, too. I told her where I was from. I liked her. Me and her got to be awful good chums, but I couldn't stand Mrs. Oliver. An' Mrs. Jarvis says, 'Why, how's my little namesake?' An' o' course I put Lizzie's best side foremost. I made her out as quiet as a lamb, an' as good an' bidable as Mary."

      "Sarah Emily!"—Miss Gordon had got back some of her severity—"you didn't tell an untruth?"

      "Well, not exactly, but I guess I scraped mighty nigh one."

      "What did Mrs. Jarvis say?"

      "She said she wasn't much like her mother then, an' she hoped she wouldn't grow up a little prig, or some such thing. An' she told me"—here Sarah Emily paused dramatically, knowing she was by this reinstating herself into the family—"she told me to tell you she was goin' to drive out some day next week and see you all, an' see what The Dale looked like."

      Miss Gordon's face flushed pink. Not since the day Lady Gordon called upon her and Cousin Griselda had she been so excited. It seemed too good to be true that her dream that this rich lady, who had once owned The Dale and for whom little Elizabeth had been called, should really come to them. Surely Lizzie's fortune was made!

      She turned gratefully towards her maid. Sarah Emily had arisen and was gathering up her hat and carpet-bag. For the first time her mistress noted the weary droop of the girl's strong frame.

      "We needn't have either muffins or pancakes, Sarah Emily," she said kindly. "Put away your things upstairs and I shall tell Jean and Mary to set the table for you."

      But Sarah Emily sprang airily towards the kitchen door, strengthened by the little touch of kindness.

      "Pshaw, don't you worrit your head about me!" she cried gayly. "I'll slap up a fine supper for yous all in ten minutes." She swung open the kitchen door at the end of the porch, and turned before she slammed it. She stood a moment regarding her mistress affectionately.

      "I tell ye what, ma'am," she cried in a burst of gratitude, "bad as ye are, other people's worse!"

      She banged the door and strode off singing loudly:

      "Timmy—eigh timmy—um, timmy—tum—tum—tum,

       Of all false young men to beware!

      Miss Gordon accepted the doubtfully worded compliment for all it really meant from Sarah Emily's generous heart. But the crudeness of it jarred upon СКАЧАТЬ