Sukie 



willow-pattern service, her daily pride, she 

 stopped and smoothed its check cloth 

 lovingly. " I pray God the silly slut won't 

 break much ! " she said, and burst into tears. 

 We missed her sadly ; the girl who 

 came in to help Mary was a poor helpless 

 thing, with a face incapable of expressing 

 pleasure or thought, and her whole bearing 

 utterly unresponsive to either kindliness or 

 displeasure ; the mark of the Benevolent 

 Institution was upon her, body and soul. 

 Very naturally she knew nothing of the 

 long-established ways of our house, and 

 felt no pride in it, or love of us. My 

 father was much put about by the absence 

 of Sukie ; for forty years she had fallen in 

 with the routine of his simple life, and the 

 lack of her caused many a hitch in its 

 working. One morning, I remember, I 

 found him w^andering helplessly about the 

 kitchen with his neckcloth in his hand, 

 when ordinarily he would have been 

 mounting his seat on the coach. My 

 Father's neckerchief being after the fashion 

 of that day, about the size of a small dinner- 

 cloth, needed so large a surface wheron it 

 could be folded, that a special white deal- 

 table had been set apart and consecrated to 

 this use, and this alone, for as long a time 

 as I could remember. But hither, all un- 

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