Potter till I was eighteen years old. Her husband kept
public house. They made a perfect slave of me. When I was twelve
years old I had to milk three cows, besides spinning my day's work on
the flax-wheel. And very often all I had for supper was brown bread
and skim milk. I didn't have any grandfather's house to go to, with a
seat in the trees, and a boat on the water, and a swing, and a summer
house, and a _crocky-set_ (croquet set). Not I!"
Flyaway was cutting paper dolls with all speed, but her sweet little
face was drawn into curves of pity.
"Too bad! Naughty folks to give you _skilmick_."
"I had to scour all the knives too. I did it by drawing them back and
forth into a sand-bank back of the house. This Isaac I speak of was a
lazy boy, and very unkind to me; but his mother wouldn't hear a word
against him. One day I brushed a traveller's coat, and got a silver
quarter for my trouble. I thought everything of that quarter. I had
never had so much money before in my life. I had half a mind to put it
in the Savings Bank; 'and who knows,' thought I, 'but I can add more
to it, one of these days, and buy my time.
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