Chapter IV: Letter II: Margaret to Her Mother

DEAREST MOTHER:—It is but a week since I wrote to you, and here I am inscribing another letter. O how thankful ought I to be that I was ever taught to write; it is such a pleasure and comfort to sit down and pen one's thoughts. I feel as if I were chatting with you as I used to do in our pretty little parlor. All is now very quiet in the house, the children are sleeping softly, and nothing can disturb me.

I am a very happy girl. My mistress is so reasonable, so kind, and so considerate. I have seen mistresses in this city who seem to imagine that their servants are destitute of all feeling; but my mistress is a Christian, all her orders are given in the kindest manner, and she takes great pains to teach me everything that I do not know. My happiness is increased by the happiness of the children. They are quite fond of me. They will stay with me as willingly as with their mother. This is a great advantage to her, for her husband being very often absent from home, she has to attend a great deal in the ware room—O, such a ware room, filled with muslin, in which my mistress deals. It is really beautiful. The muslin is so fine and even, and such a lovely white, the texture, too, is so delicate, that I think, dear mother, you would be as surprised as I was. I could not cease wondering how it was made. My mistress told me it was all spun by machines.

Who are the machines, I said, for I thought it was some particular sort of people to whom she referred. She heartily laughed at my blunder, and explained the thing to me. This surprised me more than before. She afterwards showed me some lace handkerchiefs, and dresses, the flowers on which were amazingly beautiful. These, she said, were not made by machines, but worked by the hand, by thousands and thousands of poor industrious people.

I mentioned to you in my last letter, that my mistress's house is very large and fine, and so it is. It stands in one of the broadest and handsomest streets in the city. A lady of rank lodges on the first floor. What a gay grand place is the city; how different from the quiet country village where I dwelt with you! The morning after my arrival the maidservant of our lodger came down to me with a clean white jug, with a plated lid.

"I say," she cried to me, "the girl that was here before you came, used always to bring the spa water from the fountain for my mistress. Will you do the same? It does not suit me to go tramping about with a jug in my hand, but you could easily spare a quarter of an hour in the evening, after the shop is shut up, and the children in bed; and my lady will very willingly give you a kreuzer * for every jug; and more than that, she will pay you regularly at the end of every week."

* About the value of one cent.

"I should be very glad to do what you require," I answered, "if my mistress were willing that I should do so. But I do not require payment for fetching a drink of water."

"Take the money, by all means," said my mistress; "the lady can well afford it, and a kreuzer a day is worth having. The secret of all greatness lies in littles."

I was very much pleased, as you may readily suppose, and, taking the jug, entered at once upon my duties as water carrier. Well, dear mother, as I was just lighting the lamp to-night, the maid came in and handed me six kreuzers. I was delighted with the money. It was fresh from the mint, and though it was only copper, shone just like gold. I thought myself amazingly rich. But the pieces will be far more valuable to you than to me; here I have every thing I need. These new coins I now send to you; I shall send you at the end of each month, all the kreuzers I get. All my letters the carrier has promised to take free.

I know that the present is a small one, but the will must be taken for the deed. If the pieces were gold instead of copper, they would better testify the love and affection of your daughter,

MARGARET KAURNER.