It was a wearisome day to poor Anna, as she walked from square to
square, calling at the houses for employment. Some received her kindly,
and patronised her themselves, and promised to interest their friends
in her behalf, while others, alleging that she could not earn as much as
a woman, endeavored to beat her down a few shillings in her price. But
among all, Anna found means of subsistence for many months. But soon her
constitution began to grow weak, and her friends thought it best for
Willy to give up his school awhile, and to obtain some place as errand
boy, and for Anna to pursue a more active life.
Soon Anna found herself in a new home, doing the work of a family which
devolved on her. She kept a diary, and she would often go away in her
own little room, and scribble a few lines in her book. Here is an
extract from her writings:--
"To-day I am very tired, and yet but very little has been accomplished.
I know I could do well enough if I was allowed to regulate my work, or
if there was only order in the arrangement. There is certainly a great
want of system in this family; I am never allowed to finish one piece of
work before I am called off to another, and then blamed because I did
not do the first in time.
"One wants me to put the dough in the pans, and before I get my hands
clean, another calls me to go and get some wood; another tells me to go
to the store for some thread; another cries out, Anna! Anna! and away I
am sent to the third story after a book. Do they think a girl like me is
never tired? Ah, me! I must seek another place. I love little children,
and I think I should do for a child's nurse; I will advertise."
And she did advertise, and it was not long before she was answered by a
request to call at Number 4, Elm street, at three o'clock on Wednesday.
In the next story we shall find