"'Tis just my best and my worst," she answered, "for I've got no
other."
And in truth I found that this young lady had left the paternal
mansion with no more clothes of any kind than what she had on.
I immediately gave her money to purchase what was necessary for
cleanliness and decency, and set to work with my daughters to
make her a gown. She grinned applause when our labour was
completed, but never uttered the slightest expression of
gratitude for that, or for any thing else we could do for her.
She was constantly asking us to lend her different articles of
dress, and when we declined it, she said, "Well, I never seed
such grumpy folks as you be; there is several young ladies of my
acquaintance what goes to live out now and then with the old
women about the town, and they and their gurls always lends them
what they asks for; I guess you Inglish thinks we should poison
your things, just as bad as if we was Negurs." And here I beg to
assure the reader, that whenever I give conversations they were
not made A LOISIR, but were written down immediately after they
occurred, with all the verbal fidelity my memory permitted.
This young lady left me at the end of two months, because I
refused to lend her money enough to buy a silk dress to go to a
ball, saying, "Then 'tis not worth my while to stay any longer."
I cannot imagine it possible that such a state of things can be
desirable, or beneficial to any of the parties concerned.
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