Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, Second SeriesBottrell, William
General
Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, Second Series
Bottrell, William
Cornwall (England : County) -- Social life and customs; Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
Then milk 'Daisy,'
and give the child this bowlfull and no more," said she, showing
Grace a china-basin that would contain a pint or so; "make
flowery-milk for breakfast, and when the breakfast things are
washed away, scald the evening's milk, and clean up the house."
Just as the precise dame had finished her instructions, the
master came in and said, "I think it's high time for 'e to go
home, An' Prue, whilst there's daylight for 'e to find your way
across the water." "My room is more welcome than my
company," mumbled she, in hobbling out; "but we shall see
how they will get on without me to keep them to stays."
Grace told her master that she wasn't used to go to bed so
early; he answered, "please yourself on that score, and stay up
as long as you mind to." He then brought her a basket of fruit,
and told her to eat what she pleased of them; afterwards, he
gave her a cup of cordial that she found delicious; and by the
time she had drunk it to the last drop, she forgot her home and
playmates among the hills; her brothers and sisters, her father
and mother even; she no more remembered her former state,
and only thought of her kind master and the delightful place in
which he lived; and she dreamt that night of nothing else.
In the morning Grace was up betimes; finished her work in
a hour or so, and 'looked over her shoulder for more,' when
An' Prue came in, examined the house, and seeing nothing to
find fault with, she merely said, "A new broom sweeps clean,
but an old one es good for the corners," and told Grace she[179]
might work in the garden for an hour or so, till time to get
dinner, if she had a mind to, that her master was there and he
would show her what to do.
Prudence returned to her dwelling, where she kept a school;
and Grace, glad to escape the old dame's piercing eyes, went
into the garden to look upon the more pleasing countenance of
her master, who said, "You have made a good beginning,
cheeld, only hold to it, and we shall get on very well; come now
and help me weed a flower-bed, that I may show 'e what to pull
up and what to let grow." She weeded so handy and minded
her master's instructions so well, that he, to show his satisfaction,
when a bed was finished, clasped her in his arms and kissed her,
saying, "I can't tell 'e any other way how well pleased I am
at your handy work." She redoubled her efforts to please him
that he might again show his satisfaction.
Time passed so pleasantly in the beautiful garden—which
Grace thought must be like Paradise—that they forgot the
dinner hour, till the boy came home from school and ran out into
the garden, shouting, "Dadda! Dadda! I want my dinner; An'
Prue always had it ready in time." "Run in my good girl,"
said his father; "give him bread and honey with milk to drink,
or anything to stop his squalling, we can have apple-pie; pick a
few of the ripest from yonder tree."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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