ord to lath, plaster, paper,
and paint the large lumber-room, and open a door of communication into
the passage, by which we avoided entering through the kitchen. Our
late sitting-room we dined in, and made the dining-room a
dressing-room; got several small comforts besides; and though last not
least, hired an old piano; and every evening enjoyed music in a degree
none but real lovers of that delightful art, long deprived of it, can
have the slightest conception of--and all this happiness and comfort
for L.50! Think of that, ye ladies who give as much for a gown!

Our new servant, Olive, was as clean, orderly, and active as our late
one had been the reverse. The difference it made in our comfort was as
great as if we had had our former establishment restored, and really
our _bonne_ was a host within herself. The house was always clean, but
we never saw her cleaning: she went to market, baked all our bread,
yet never seemed oppressed with work: her cookery was capital; she
made excellent dishes out of what Batilde would have wasted: went to
mass every morning, and was back in time to prepare everything for our
breakfast. After staying a month, she begged permission to leave the
cockloft and bring her 'effects' to the gate-house, which we willingly
permitted; and her wardrobe was worth a journey to see, when we
remembered that her wages had never been quite L.8 until she came to
us, and her age only thirty. I shall give the list I copied, hoping
some of our English Betties may read and profit by her example:
twenty-four good strong linen shifts, made and marked neatly by
herself; two dozen worsted and thread stockings, knit by herself;
twelve pocket-handkerchiefs; six stout petticoats; four flannel do.;
six pair of shoes; eight caps; eight neck-frills; umbrella;
prayer-book; gold earrings and cross--which two last, with a beautiful
lace-cap, she inherited, but everything else was of her _own earning_.
She bought a wardrobe and bedstead, and was by degrees getting
furniture; and as I exacted no sewing, every leisure moment she was
spinning her future sheets. With all this she was also very kind to a
married sister, who had a large family; but she wore no flowers,
flounces, nor finery; her six gowns were of a stuff the Scotch call
linsey-woolsey; and so in sixteen years' services she had amassed what
I have just described. Why can't our girls do as much where wages are
higher and clothes cheaper?

We spent three years in