ANNA SEEKING EMPLOYMENT.
It was a wearisome day to poor Anna, as she walked from square to
square, calling at the houses for employment. Some received her
kindly, and patronised her themselves, and promised to interest their
friends in her behalf, while others, alleging that she could not earn
as much as a woman, endeavored to beat her down a few shillings in her
price. But among all, Anna found means of subsistence for many months.
But soon h
r constitution began to grow weak, and her friends thought
it best for Willy to give up his school awhile, and to obtain some
place as errand boy, and for Anna to pursue a more active life.
Soon Anna found herself in a new home, doing the work of a family
which devolved on her. She kept a diary, and she would often go away
in her own little room and scribble a few lines in her book. Here is
an extract from her writings:----
"To-day I am very tired and yet but very little has been accomplished.
I know I could do well enough if I was allowed to regulate my work, or
if there was only order in the arrangement. There is certainly a great
want of system in this family; I am never allowed to finish one piece
of work before I am called off to another, and then blamed because I
did not do the first in time.
"One wants me to put the dough in the pants, and before I get my
hands clean, another calls me to go and get some wood; another tells
me to go to the store for some thread; another cries out, Anna! Anna!
and away I am sent to the third story after a book. Do they think a
girl like me is never tired? Ah, me! I must seek another place. I love
little children, and I think I should do for a child's nurse; I will
advertise."
And she did advertise, and it was not long before she was answered by
a request to call at Number 4, Elm street, at three o'clock on
Wednesday. In the next story we shall find