“You will soon find what great people such as we are here,” said Ellen, laughing. “This is the place to grow proud in. No more lounging about the fields, Frank; no more leaning over gates chewing straws, while nobody inquires for one. You will never need to touch your hat and ask for work here; people will come begging you to be so very kind as to put up a door for any pay you please. This is the place to grow proud in.” Frank observed, with a grave smile, that pride was dangerous to one in Ellen’s place. “Well, then, I will be proud of you, and you shall be proud of me; and no harm can come of that.” The first time that the brother and sister could obtain a few minutes’ conversation without being overheard, Frank inquired, “Now, Ellen, tell me straight forward. How do you like your change?” “Why, I more than half like it; but there are some things I do not like.—It is a fine thing to be so well off, and to know that I shall be so: and I do not mind the work, though it is rather hard, to be sure; and my cows are nothing but a credit to me, and I have seen no animals to be afraid of when I go out milking, though some of them leap about very strangely indeed; and my mistress makes much of me, as I told you; and her little worries are not much to be wondered at when one thinks of the confusion we live in just now; and I dare say there will be an end of them when we get our soap and candles made out of the house, and another hand or two to help in the brewing and washing. And then to think that father and you are so well off——” “But tell me what there is that you do not like.” Ellen almost shuddered when she whispered that her fellow servant, who ate at the same table, and slept in the same room, and was her companion almost all day, was a convict, and had been sent to this country for robbing an aged mistress who had confided in her, and deserved gratitude instead of treachery from her. To be compelled to hold daily and hourly intercourse with such a person was a very great evil, and one which doubled Frank’s anxiety about his sister. He was glad to hear that there was a probability of the woman marrying as soon as she could obtain a remission of her servitude by steady conduct.