Like many others of us in the world, there was a mother and her
daughter. They were very poor, and the daughter said that she wished
to go out to service, in order to do something for her mother. The
mother will not listen to it; what would become of her without her
daughter? She prefers to be poor with her to being rich alone. The
young girl stays at home. She used to go out as needlewoman; but
suddenly her mother falls ill, and quickly she dies.
This poor young girl had the deepest sorrow, and she continued to
go out to work as before. One day, while she was at work in a house,
some acquaintance came and said to them--
"What! you have this young girl here to work! She is a bad girl;
she is not at all what she ought to be. You should not take her."
In the evening they give her her day's wages, and say that they do
not want her any more. She goes to another house, and there the same
thing happens. Some people come and say in the same way--
"You have that young girl to work! She will come to a bad end, that
girl will. She is even a thief; do not have her again."
In the evening they give her her day's wages, and say to her that they
do not want her any more. No one asked her to work any more, and she
remained at home. By charity and pity, some neighbours, without any
necessity, let her come to work for them, because they were pained
to see her distress. But there, too, someone comes and says,
"I am astonished to see that young girl here. She is a worthless
girl. How is it that you have her here?"