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    884 %%$ fLt&tt$t+ [Saturday,

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    Sketches From Life. By Harriet Maktinkau...

    fellow-servants had their time , after seven in the evening , for their own work ; and Jemima was a capital needlewoman , and worked for somebody else besides herself . She would ask the nursemaid to read aloud , and , in return , she would make or mend a gown for her . She reduced her own gowns * when they began to wear , for her little sister Sally . The wonder was how she could afford this , out of her small wages ; but she was always nicely dressed ; and she soon began to spare money for other objects which her friends thought should not have * been pressed upon one in her circumstances . This was after a great change had come over her mind and life .

    It was true that Jemima was not without a fault , any more than other people . Her temper was not perfectly good . Her mistress soon perceived this , by certain flashes from her eyes , and flushes of her cheeks , and quick breathing , and hurry of speaking . It was n ot much at first ; no more than just enough to show that Jemima could be in a passion , and probably would some day . The sufferings of her deceased master and mistress had kept this down while she was with them . Their deaths had made a deep impression upon her , and had disposed her naturally religious temper to be strongly wrought upon by the first religious influence which should come in her way .

    A new Methodist minister had been very acceptable to the people who attended the Apple-lane meeting-house ; and , within a year after " going to the Barclays , Jemima requested permission to attend that place of worship , instead of following the family to their own chapel on Sundays . Mrs . Barclay was sorry , because she liked to see her servants at worship near her own pew : but Jemima was always so trustworthy , and on this occasion so earnest , that it did not seem right to deny her ; and she became a member of the Appleyard Meeting Society . Very soon she asked leave to go an hour sooner on Sunday mornings to attend class ; and then to go there one evening in the

    week , and sometimes two . As her work was never neglected , this , too , was permitted . Very soon it appeared that she was subscribing annually , quarterly , weekly , to missionary objects and sectarian funds . How she managed it nobody could understand ; but she did it , and honestly . Her dress reached the last point of plainness and cheapness ; but it was as neat as ever ; so that it was wholly her own affair . A less pleasant change was that her temper was far from improving . She would have none but religious books read in the kitchen , and could tolerate no singing but hymns . She winced when anybody laughed . A contraction came over her open brow ,

    and a sharpness into her once cheerful voice . Not satisfied with pressing her views upon her fellow-servants , she became critical upon the ways of the family . One of their customs was to receive , on Sunday evenings , two or three young men , who , living alone , liked to spend their Sunday evenings in a sociable manner . There was always Scripture-reading and prayer , and often sacred music . In summer there was a country walk ; in winter cheerful conversation , with an occasional laugh , which could be heard in the kitchen . This was too much for Jemima ; but a worse thing was the supper .

    Like most old-fashioned Dissenters , the Barclays dined at one o ' clock on Sundays , and , naturally , they had some supper at nine . It was simple enough ; but the servant whose turn it was to stay at home had sometimes to poach eggs or dress a cutlet ; and Jemima ' s repugnance to this was so far from being concealed that it amounted at last to extreme impertinence ; and she went so far as to express her contempt and abhorrence to the child , whom ifc was her business to put to bed . Her mistress always hoped that the fit of fanaticism would pass off with months or years , and the sooner for not being interfered with ; but this behaviour could not be passed over . When the rebuke was given poor Jemima emptied her heart completely ; and very curious the contents proved

    to be . It appeared that she despised the family she lived with , though she was fully resolved to do her duty by them . She feared they were lost people ; but they might yet be saved , and it was her business to serve them , and not to judge them . She hoped she had not failed in her duty ; but her feelings and her thoughts were her own . If she must not speak them , she could hold her tongue , and bear the cross of so doing ; but nobody could take them from her . There was so much that was respectable and really fine in her ardour and conscientiousness , that she was gently treated , and only forbidden to make any complaints to the younger members of the family . One most important disclosure at this time was that she was engaged to be married ; not yet , but some time or other .

    Her lover was a class-mate , apprenticed to a shoemaker , with two years of his apprenticeship still to run . On enquiry he was found to be thoroughly respectable as to character , diligent in his business , and likely to be an able workman . So he was allowed to call for Jemima on class evenings , and to come now and then to the house . The Barclays knew when he was there by hearing a man ' s voice reading in the kitchen , when the door was opened , or by the psalm-singing , which needed no open doors to make itself heard .

    Jemima was now , however , unsettled ; not at all by her engagement , for nothing could be more sober and rational than the temper and views of the young people as regarded each other and their prospects ; but the poor girl felt ; that she was living in a sort of bondage , while yet she could blame nobody for it . She sighed for freedom to lead the sort of religious life she wished , without interruption from persons of a different way of thinking . I believe she was nineteen or twenty when she told Mrs . Barclay what she had been planning ; and Mrs . Barclay was not altogether sorry to hear about it , for Jemima had lost much of her openness and cheerfulness , bounced about when doing her work , and knocked hard with her brushes when

    cleaning floors overhead . There was evidently an internal irritation , which might best be relieved by total change . The plan was for Jemima and a pious friend , about her own age , to take a room and live together , maintaining themselves by working for the upholsterers . The girls thought they could make money faster this way than at service , as both were good workwomen , and could live as cheaply as anybody could live . If they found themselves mistaken they could go back to service . Jemima avowed that her object was to lay by money , as Richard and she had resolved not to marry till they could furnish their future dwelling well and comfortably . This might have been a rash scheme for most girls ; but these two friends were so good and so sensible , and knew their own purposes so well , that nobody opposed their experiment .

    It was really a pleasure to go and see them when they were settled . They chose their room carefully , for the sake of their work , as well as their own health . Their room was very high upstairs ; but it was all the more airy for that , and they wanted plenty of light . And very light it was , —with its two windows on different sides of the room . The well-boarded floor looked a clean as their table . There were plants in the windows ; and there was a view completely over the chimneys of the city to the country beyond . Their most delicate work could get no soil here . They were well employed , and laid by money , as fast as they expected .

    Still it seemed , after a time , that Jemima was not yet happy . Her face was anxious , and her colour faded . She often went to work at the Barclays ; as often as Mrs . B . could find any upholstery , or other needlework , for her to do . One object was to give her a good hot dinner occasionally ; for i seemed possible that she might be living too low , though she declared tha ^ this was not the case . One day she happened to be at work in the dining , room with Mrs . Barclay , when one of the young ladies went in . Jemima was bending over her work ; yet Miss B . saw that her face was crimson , and heard that her voice was agitated . On a sign from her mother , the young

    lady withdrew . One evening the next week Richard called , and saw Mrs . Barclay alone . Little was said in the family ; but in many parts of the city it became presently known that the preacher who had so revived religion among the young people was on bad terms with some of them . Either he was a profligate , or some dozen young women were slanderers . Jemima was growing thin and pale under the dread of the enquiry which must , she knew , take place . Either her own character must go , or she must help to take away that of the minister . It was no great comfort to her that Richard told her that Mrs . Barclay could and would carry her through . She had many wretched thoughts that this certainty could not reach .

    It was some weeks before the business was over . The Miss Barclays and Jemima were sitting at work together , with the parlour-door open , when there

    was a knock , and then the shuffling of the feet of four gentlemen in the hall , just as Mrs . Barclay was coming down stairs . She invited them into the drawing-room "; but the spokesman ( an acquaintance of the Barclays ) declined , saying that a few words would suffice ; that he and his friends understood that Mrs . Barclay was thoroughly well acquainted with Jemima Brooks , and they merely wished to know whether Jemima was , in that house , considered a well-conducted young woman , whose word might be trusted . All this was heard in the parlour . Jemima ' s tears dropped upon her needle ; but she would not give up ; she worked on , as if her life depended on getting done . The young ladies had never seen her cry ; and the sight moved them almost as much as their mother ' s voice , which they clearly heard saying ,

    " I am glad you have come here , Mr . Bennett ; for I can speak to Jemima Brooks ' s merits . She lived in my family for some years ; and she is in the house at this moment . There is no one in the world whom I more cordially respect ; and , when I say that I regard her as a friend , I need not tell you that I think of the value of her word . " " Quite enough , Mrs . Barclay . Quite enough . We have nothing more to ask . We are greatly obliged to you , ma ' am . Good morning , —good

    morning . When Mrs . Barclay had seen them out , and entered the parlour , the quick yet full gaze that Jemima raised to her face was a thing never to be forgotten . Mrs . Barclay turned her face away ; but immediately put on her thimble , sat down among the party , and began to tell her daughters the news from London . Jemima heard no more of this business . It is probable that the gentleman received similar testimony with regard to the other young people implicated ; for the preacher was dismissed the city , without any ceremony , and with very brief notice .

    From this time might clearly be dated the decline of Jemima ' s spiritual pride and irritability of temper . She was deeply humbled ; and from under the ruins of her pride sprang richly the indigenous growth of her sweet affections . She was not a whit less religious ; but she had a higher view of what religion should be . Her smile , when she met any of the Barclays in the street , and the tenderness in her voice when she spoke , to them , indicated a very different state of mind from that in which she had left them .

    She was looking well , and her friend and she were doing well , and Richard and she were beginning to reckon how many months , at their present rate of earning , would enable them to furnish a dwelling , and justify their going home to it , when they were called upon for a new decision , and a new scene opened in Jemima ' s life . ( To be continued . )

    884 %%$ Flt&Tt$T+ [Saturday,

    884 %%$ fLt & tt $ t + [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 7, 1850, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07121850/page/20/