Autobiography of a Pocket-HandkerchiefCooper, James Fenimore
General
Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief
Cooper, James Fenimore
Fables; Handkerchiefs -- Fiction
Adrienne found that by using the wine which still remained, as well as
some sugar and arrowroot, her grandmother could be made comfortable for
just ten sous a day. She had been able to save of her own wages three,
and here, then, were the means of maintaining Madame de la Rocheaimard,
including the franc on hand, for just a week longer. To do this,
however, some little extra economy would be necessary. Adrienne had
conscientiously taken the time used to sell the thimble from her
morning's work on me. As she sat down, on her return, she went over
these calculations in her mind, and when they were ended, she cast a
look at her work, as if to calculate its duration by what she had so
far finished. Her eye assured her that not more than one fourth of her
labor was, as yet, completed. Could she get over the next six weeks,
however, she would be comparatively rich, and, as her lease would be
out in two months, she determined to get cheaper lodgings in the
country, remove her grandmother, purchase another handkerchief--if
possible one of my family--and while she lived on the fruits of her
present labors, to earn the means for a still more remote day. It is
true, she had no more lace with which to decorate another handkerchief,
but the sale of this would supply the money to purchase anew, and in
this way the simple minded girl saw no reason why she might not
continue on as long as health and strength would allow--at least as
long as her grandmother lived.
Hope is as blessed a provision for the poor and unhappy as occupation.
While oppressed with present ills they struggle to obtain a fancied
existence under happier auspices, furnishing a healthful and important
lesson to man, that never ceases to remind him of a future that is to
repair every wrong, apply a balm to every wound, if he will only make a
timely provision for its wants.
Again did Adrienne resume her customary round of duties. Four hours
each morning were devoted to me. Then followed the frugal breakfast,
when her commoner toil for the milliner succeeded. The rest of the day
was occupied with this latter work, for which she received the
customary fifteen sous. When she retired at night, which the ailings
and complaints of her grandmother seldom permitted before eleven, it
was with a sense of weariness that began to destroy sleep; still the
dear girl thought herself happy, for I more than equaled her
expectations, and she had latterly worked on me with so much zeal as to
have literally thrown the fruits of two weeks' work into one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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