If these terms suit you, the price for
my family--eight children, myself, and servant--would be $38.50 a week.
Perhaps, if the servant takes the entire charge of my rooms, you would
call it $37; as, of course, that would save the time of your own
servants."
Then the country landlord hesitates. He is not positively sure of filling
all his rooms for the season. Thirty-seven dollars a week would be, he
thinks, better than nothing. In his simplicity, he supposes that, if he
confers, as he certainly does, a favor on Mrs.----, by receiving her great
family on such low terms, she will be thoroughly well disposed toward him
and his house, and will certainly not be over-exacting in matter of
accommodations. In an evil hour, he consents; they come, and he begins to
reap his reward. The twins are stout boys, as large as men, and much
hungrier. The baby is a sickly child of eighteen months, and requires
especial diet, which must be prepared at especial and inconvenient hours,
in the crowded little kitchen. The other five children are average boys
and girls, between the ages of three and twelve, eat certainly as much as
five grown people, and make twice as much trouble.
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