MY WORK AND PAY. 3 



summer's evening ; and how the birds did 

 sing after a little rain we had ! but how 

 heavy it made my heart to be left in that 

 place all alone ! But I said the prayer my 

 mother taught me, and in I got on the bass 

 mats that made the mattress, with a blanket' 

 and coverlid for bed-clothes. My wages was 

 to be five shillings a- week, and find myself; 

 and that was the reason, the gardener said, 

 why I was to sleep there, because I couldn't 

 pay for lodgings. 



I was tired, and soon fell asleep, and for- 

 got all about wages and every thing else, 

 till a strange face called me in the morning 

 to get up, and then I soon found out all about 

 my new life. I was to fetch and carry from 

 the garden to the house, sweep paths, and 

 beat mats and carpets, and at spare times 

 learn to dig. And these things I did many 

 a long day ; and they that recollect what a 

 growing body and great appetite can do at 

 the bread, let alone the beef, may guess how 

 I felt sometimes on five shillings a-week to 

 find all. Many a time I've seen the squire 

 push up the dining-room window, and throw 

 the dogs that lay about on the lawn bones 

 that I should have been glad to pick; and 



