Her usefulness was all abroad. Within the house she made more dirt than
she had the inclination or the ability to clear away. She could neither
read, nor knit, nor sew; and although she called herself a Protestant,
and a Church of England woman, she knew no more of religion, as revealed
to man through the Word of God, than the savage who sinks to the grave
in ignorance of a Redeemer. Hence she stoutly resisted all idea of being
a sinner, or of standing the least chance of receiving hereafter the
condemnation of one.
“Och, shure thin,” she would say, with simple earnestness of look and
manner, almost irresistible, “God will never trouble Himsel' about a
poor, hard-working crathur like me, who never did any harm to the manest
of His makin'.”
One thing was certain, that a benevolent Providence had, “throubled
Himsel'” about poor Jenny in times past, for the warm heart of this
neglected child of Nature contained a stream of the richest benevolence,
which, situated as she had been, could not have been derived from any
other source. Honest, faithful, and industrious, Jenny became a law
unto herself, and practically illustrated the golden rule of her blessed
Lord, “to do unto others as we would they should do unto us.” She
thought it was impossible that her poor services could ever repay the
debt of gratitude that she owed to the family who had brought her up,
although the obligation must have been entirely on their side. To them
she was greatly attached--for them she toiled unceasingly; and when evil
days came, and they were not able to meet the rent-day, or to occupy the
farm, she determined to accompany them in their emigration to Canada,
and formed one of the stout-hearted band that fixed its location in the
lonely and unexplored wilds now known as the township of Dummer.
During the first year of their settlement, the means of obtaining the
common necessaries of life became so precarious, that, in order to
assist her friends with a little ready money, Jenny determined to hire
out into some wealthy house as a servant. When I use the term wealth
as applied to any bush-settler, it is of course only comparatively; but
Jenny was anxious to obtain a place with settlers who enjoyed a small
income independent of their forest means.
Her first speculation was a complete failure. For five long, hopeless
years she served a master from whom she never received a farthing of her
stipulated wages. Still her attachment to the family was so strong, and
had become so much the necessity of her life, that the poor creature
could not make up her mind to leave them. The children whom she had
received into her arms at their birth, and whom she had nursed with
maternal tenderness, were as dear to her as if they had been her own;
she continued to work for them, although her clothes were worn to
tatters, and her own friends were too poor to replace them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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