Hundreds of half-naked girls work in the paper-mills, or in any
other manufactory, for less than half the wages they would receive in
service: but they think their equality is compromised by the latter, and
nothing but the wish to obtain some particular article of finery will ever
induce them to submit to it. A kind friend, however, exerted herself so
effectually for me, that a tall stately lass soon presented herself,
saying, 'I be come to help you.' The intelligence was very agreeable, and
I welcomed her in the most gracious manner possible, and asked what I
should give her by the year. 'Oh Gimini!' exclaimed the damsel, with a
loud laugh, 'you be a downright Englisher, sure enough. I should like to
see a young lady engage by the year in America! I hope I shall get a
husband before many months, or I expect I shall be an outright old maid,
for I be most seventeen already; besides, mayhap I may want to go to
school. You must just give me a dollar and a half a week; and mother's
slave, Phillis, must come over once a week, I expect, from t'other side
the water, to help me clean.' I agreed to the bargain, of course, with all
dutiful submission; and seeing she was preparing to set to work in a
yellow dress parseme with red roses, I gently hinted, that I thought it
was a pity to spoil so fine a gown, and that she had better change it.
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