THE CUMBERERS.

CHAPTER 111.

Ir was quite dark, when, exhausted and faint, Amelia and I were led home by Miss Perkins and Sarah. They put us to bed, and gave us dry toast and hot wine-and-water. Sarah attended to Amelia, and I fell to Miss Bobby's share. I heard the motherly creature lamenting over me; wishing she had let me stay at home, and declaring that anxiety had made her quite wretched about us both, for she had thought how it would be when the wind began to rise, and (the kind-hearted woman!) she had been wishing all day that she had been there instead of us, for she couldn't bear young people to be disappointed when they went out expecting to enjoy themselves. Miss Robina was still sitting by my bed, consoling and petting, when I fell into a sound sleep and happily forgot my troubles.

It is curious how sometimes a little sound heard in sleep will influence and change the current of our dreams. It was natural that I should dream of the yacht, but odd that I should mingle with this the idea of stitching. I dreamed that it was dark night, and that, seated on the deck, Bobby and Sarah were hard at work, mending the torn sail of the yacht. The wind had sunk; it was a dead calm, and the water so still that I could see the reflection of the stars on its black surface; some candles were burning beside us, but hard as the sisters worked, the rent seemed to grow under their hands. I was trying to help, and had a miserable certainty that till this sail could be put up, we never could reach the land, therefore I was frightened to find fresh holes every moment, and to hear Bobby say, "However this is to be done, I don't know." I thought how shocking it would be if we never could reach the land again; but in another instant Sarah said, in such a distinct voice, "Pass the cotton-reel," that I sprang up halfawake, exclaiming that I could not find it.

I saw a candle in my room, Sarah and Robina were sitting hard at work by my table, I heard the sound of their needles, just as before in my dream, but it was not a sail that they were working on, it was one of those bundles of clothes. Miss Bobby was at my side in an instant. I exclaimed against this sitting up, said I was quite well, and did not require anything. She replied, that I was very feverish, and she could not have slept even if she had gone to bed. "Besides, my dear, I thought

you would like a cup of tea; the teapot is kept hot for you, and Amelia has just had some."

I could not decline this tempting offer. Miss Perkins presently brought me some tea; and when I expressed my regret at giving this trouble, she declared that she and Sarah had decided to sit up till four o'clock, to get on with the work, for they knew that Amelia and I would be fit for very little the next day. "And you see, my dear, when we were up it was no trouble just to steal down and keep up the kitchen-fire. And neither of you was well enough to be left the first part of the night, so it was fortunate that we had this work to do, wasn't it? it was something to keep us awake."

Kind, good creature!

She and Miss Sarah shortly retired to bed, leaving me, as I thought, quite well; but on coming down the next morning I found I could do very little, and that Amelia was lying on the sofa in a very feverish state of mind, sure that if she could have some beef-tea she should be better, and then, when Bobby had made her some, (Mary not being a good hand at it) sure that if she could have had it earlier in the day it would have done her good, but now she didn't like it. In short, Amelia was very cross; and but for seeing how unpleasant she was when she gave way to her temper, very likely I should have been cross too.

The sisters sat all the morning hard at work. Amelia's bundle was scarcely begun upon, mine was one whole day behindhand, yet the work was promised for Saturday, and must not be late, because the poor families were to appear at the different places of worship on Sunday, when some further collections were to be made for them.

Yet though Amelia knew this, she made several demands upon her sister's time, and never said a word which seemed to intimate that she was sorry she had been the cause of all this extra work, hurry, and fatigue; or that she was sorry she had been so bent upon the yachting party. As for me, I believe I could have worked if I had been allowed to do so; but being under their care, these generous women could not bear that there should be the least shadow of cause for Amelia's accusation that I was shut up indoors and induced to work by them; they therefore took advantage of their authority and my youth, to forbid my working at all that day.

In the afternoon Mrs. Blount called to inquire how we were, and took Amelia and myself for a drive in her pony carriage. I sat behind, Amelia in front, and I scarcely heard any of the conversation, excepting once when we stopped at a gardener's ground, that Mrs. Blount might buy some fine calceolarias;

while we were waiting for them, I heard her say carelessly, as if referring to a matter of no consequence, "I suppose you were obliged to give some of the work you took to your servants." I did not hear Amelia's answer; but Mrs. Blount's remark was not without its effect, for when Amelia came in and found her sisters hard at work, in the hot parlour, she remarked on the folly of their giving themselves all the trouble, and asked why they did not give some of the work to Fanny the housemaid.

"She has not time for more work than I always expect of her," said Miss Perkins.

"She might do this instead, for once," proceeded Amelia. "Then I should have to do hers," said Miss Bobby, "and what would be the good of that?"

But Amelia was not convinced. "Other people's servants contrive to find time," she said. "Mrs. Blount tells me that her maid and the nurse have done a great deal of that work this week."

"Humph," said Sarah.

"And then there's Mary," continued Amelia; "really I don't know what she finds to do."

"You know very little about a cook's work," said Anne, calmly ; your saying so is a proof of it."

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Her dispassionate manner seemed to communicate itself to Miss Perkins, who said more good-humouredly than before, Mary has a good deal to do this week that I generally undertake myself."

"But there's the evening, at any rate," persisted Amelia, who could not bear to be always proved in the wrong. "When she has washed the dishes, what can she have to do more?' Why, if you really want to know," said Bessy, with some heat, "she has to pluck the fowls that we are going to have for dinner to-morrow, and she has an errand to do."

"Moreover," said Bobby, "she is a very poor hand with her needle, and I should be sorry to trust her with the work, even if she had time."

Amelia said it was a very strange thing; and on my remarking, as we walked upstairs to take off our bonnets, that her sisters all looked flushed and tired, she said, "Nobody shall ever make me believe that our servants cannot work like other people's.'

"But only consider," said I, "Mrs. Blount's maid has nothing to do but to wait on her personally; and as for the nurse, there is only that one little girl to attend. She can sit at work for hours on the beach, while the child plays at her side." "A great deal you know about these matters, no doubt,"

said Amelia, in a taunting voice. "However, if Robina and all of them CHOOSE to do the work themselves, I have spoken my mind about it, and it is no concern of mine. The servants can do it if they will tell them, and if they won't it cannot be helped."

To this speech, not having learned much forbearance from the example of the ladies down-stairs, I returned an answer more than sufficiently warm, in which I reminded Amelia that the hurry and trouble we had seen below, was solely and exclusively our doing, for we had each lost two days, and if we had done our part there would have been plenty of time; and in which I vehemently took part with the sisters, and hinted that I wondered at their indulgent forbearance.

It was not to be supposed that the matter would rest there; Amelia answered, and we wrangled and quarrelled for fully half-an-hour with much ironical civility of speech, but considerable bitterness of feeling, the ground of dispute being shortly forgotten, and unaccountably veering round to invectives on the pride and obstinacy of people of Highland descent, on the meanness of the Scotch, and their general stinginess as a nation, and on the other side, a vehement defence of them. One or two expressions used during that truly feminine affray, remain in my memory to this time. "What a pity it was that people should so far forget themselves as to interfere in other people's business, especially people who when they were at home never did a thing for themselves; in fact, Mrs. Blount had remarked that she was sure that baby-faced girl had seen nothing of society, she was so shy, so unaccustomed to be out of leading-strings, and looked as if her NURSE waited on her hand and foot."

In the midst of this contest, and when we were both so much excited that there was danger lest our temper should show itself in heightened voices, as it did already in heightened colour, I heard a step on the stairs, and running to my own room, shut and locked myself in, and refreshed myself with a fit of crying, partly caused by vexation, partly by humiliation. It did me a great deal of good, and on reflection I felt heartily ashamed of myself, for I knew that it was not my business to interfere with Amelia, and I knew that I had not done so with the most distant hope of reforming her, but only for the sake of speaking my mind. And all this while I might have done essential good if I had been working downstairs instead of quarrelling upstairs, but now my eyes were so red that I was ashamed to go down, and I had to spend another half-hour in cooling my face with my fan, and walking up and down my room with the window open.

I went down at last, and gave a little help; but when I retired at night, I felt a secret conviction that unless somebody sat up to do it, the work would not be finished in time.

I lay awake thinking of this till I heard Amelia come upstairs, and Miss Perkins and Sarah follow at their usual time; but the room over mine remained empty, and I lay listening to the striking of the quarters till it only wanted a quarter to three, and then I heard footsteps. It was as I had thought, Anne and Bessy were stealing up to their room, and treading so carefully that the stairs creaked, as they perversely do on those occasions, ten times more than under less guarded feet.

The end of this was that the work was finished, and by three o'clock on Saturday sent in. No one blamed Sarah for having named too large a quantity, though she herself took it as much to heart as if she had miscalculated their powers on purpose. No one cared either to find fault with Amelia; they seemed rather to think that they ought to have known better than to depend on her; and as for me they made the most indulgent allowance for my deficiencies, which was always their habit while I stayed with them.

On Monday the other sisters were as brisk as usual, but Anne was evidently unwell, and spent the morning on the sofa, unable to go into her garden. Mrs. Blount called and told Amelia and me (who with Anne were in the drawingroom) how all the committee had remarked on the quantity of work that had come from the Misses Perkins. "It shows," said Mrs. Blount, "how much can be done by combined effort." No one spoke. Amelia did not say anything, and I could not. She continued, "It is so pleasant and cheerful when such a large circle is at work at once, and they do it with no trouble to themselves. I often think of that true proverb, 'Many hands make light work.' No doubt it cost you less trouble than the small pieces taken by single people cost them."

I glanced at Amelia when this was said, and while explaining to Mrs. Blount that I had not done nearly the whole of my share, having missed two entire days, and that Miss Perkins and Sarah had sat up to do it for me, I saw such a vivid colour rise in Amelia's cheeks, that I knew she was ashamed to appropriate Mrs. Blount's compliments to herself, though she had not the honesty to disavow them.

"And now, my dears, as you are both still looking a little the worse for that wretched yachting affair, suppose you take a drive with me this afternoon?"

We were perfectly well, but I suppose she required some