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Work: A Story of Experience

L >> Louisa May Alcott >> Work: A Story of Experience




"A desirable place in a small, genteel family," was at last offered
her, and she posted away to secure it, having reached a state of
desperation and resolved to go as a first-class cook rather than sit
with her hands before her any longer.

A well-appointed house, good wages, and light duties seemed things
to be grateful for, and Christie decided that going out to service
was not the hardest fate in life, as she stood at the door of a
handsome house in a sunny square waiting to be inspected.

Mrs. Stuart, having just returned from Italy, affected the artistic,
and the new applicant found her with a Roman scarf about her head, a
rosary like a string of small cannon balls at her side, and azure
draperies which became her as well as they did the sea-green
furniture of her marine boudoir, where unwary walkers tripped over
coral and shells, grew sea-sick looking at pictures of tempestuous
billows engulfing every sort of craft, from a man-of-war to a
hencoop with a ghostly young lady clinging to it with one hand, and
had their appetites effectually taken away by a choice collection of
water-bugs and snakes in a glass globe, that looked like a jar of
mixed pickles in a state of agitation.

MRS. STUART.

Madame was intent on a water-color copy of Turner's "Rain, Wind, and
Hail," that pleasing work which was sold upsidedown and no one found
it out. Motioning Christie to a seat she finished some delicate
sloppy process before speaking. In that little pause Christie
examined her, and the impression then received was afterward
confirmed.

Mrs. Stuart possessed some beauty and chose to think herself a queen
of society. She assumed majestic manners in public and could not
entirely divest herself of them in private, which often produced
comic effects. Zenobia troubled about fish-sauce, or Aspasia
indignant at the price of eggs will give some idea of this lady when
she condescended to the cares of housekeeping.

Presently she looked up and inspected the girl as if a new servant
were no more than a new bonnet, a necessary article to be ordered
home for examination. Christie presented her recommendation, made
her modest little speech, and awaited her doom.

Mrs. Stuart read, listened, and then demanded with queenly brevity:

"Your name?"

"Christie Devon."

"Too long; I should prefer to call you Jane as I am accustomed to
the name."

"As you please, ma'am."

"Your age?"

"Twenty-one."

"You are an American?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Mrs. Stuart gazed into space a moment, then delivered the following
address with impressive solemnity:

"I wish a capable, intelligent, honest, neat, well-conducted person
who knows her place and keeps it. The work is light, as there are
but two in the family. I am very particular and so is Mr. Stuart. I
pay two dollars and a half, allow one afternoon out, one service on
Sunday, and no followers. My table-girl must understand her duties
thoroughly, be extremely neat, and always wear white aprons."

"I think I can suit you, ma'am, when I have learned the ways of the
house," meekly replied Christie.

Mrs. Stuart looked graciously satisfied and returned the paper with
a gesture that Victoria might have used in restoring a granted
petition, though her next words rather marred the effect of the
regal act, "My cook is black."

"I have no objection to color, ma'am."

An expression of relief dawned upon Mrs. Stuart's countenance, for
the black cook had been an insurmountable obstacle to all the Irish
ladies who had applied. Thoughtfully tapping her Roman nose with the
handle of her brush Madame took another survey of the new applicant,
and seeing that she looked neat, intelligent, and respectful, gave a
sigh of thankfulness and engaged her on the spot.

Much elated Christie rushed home, selected a bag of necessary
articles, bundled the rest of her possessions into an empty closet
(lent her rent-free owing to a profusion of cockroaches), paid up
her board, and at two o'clock introduced herself to Hepsey Johnson,
her fellow servant.

Hepsey was a tall, gaunt woman, bearing the tragedy of her race
written in her face, with its melancholy eyes, subdued expression,
and the pathetic patience of a wronged dumb animal. She received
Christie with an air of resignation, and speedily bewildered her
with an account of the duties she would be expected to perform.

A long and careful drill enabled Christie to set the table with but
few mistakes, and to retain a tolerably clear recollection of the
order of performances. She had just assumed her badge of servitude,
as she called the white apron, when the bell rang violently and
Hepsey, who was hurrying away to "dish up," said:

"It's de marster. You has to answer de bell, honey, and he likes it
done bery spry."

Christie ran and admitted an impetuous, stout gentleman, who
appeared to be incensed against the elements, for he burst in as if
blown, shook himself like a Newfoundland dog, and said all in one
breath:

"You're the new girl, are you? Well, take my umbrella and pull off
my rubbers."

"Sir?"

Mr. Stuart was struggling with his gloves, and, quite unconscious of
the astonishment of his new maid, impatiently repeated his request.

"Take this wet thing away, and pull off my overshoes. Don't you see
it's raining like the very deuce!"

Christie folded her lips together in a peculiar manner as she knelt
down and removed a pair of muddy overshoes, took the dripping
umbrella, and was walking away with her agreeable burden when Mr.
Stuart gave her another shock by calling over the banister:

"I'm going out again; so clean those rubbers, and see that the boots
I sent down this morning are in order."

"Yes, sir," answered Christie meekly, and immediately afterward
startled Hepsey by casting overshoes and umbrella upon the kitchen
floor, and indignantly demanding:

"Am I expected to be a boot-jack to that man?"

"I 'spects you is, honey."

"Am I also expected to clean his boots?"

"Yes, chile. Katy did, and de work ain't hard when you gits used to
it."

"It isn't the work; it's the degradation; and I won't submit to it."

Christie looked fiercely determined; but Hepsey shook her head,
saying quietly as she went on garnishing a dish:

"Dere's more 'gradin' works dan dat, chile, and dem dat's bin
'bliged to do um finds dis sort bery easy. You's paid for it, honey;
and if you does it willin, it won't hurt you more dan washin' de
marster's dishes, or sweepin' his rooms."

"There ought to be a boy to do this sort of thing. Do you think it's
right to ask it of me?" cried Christie, feeling that being servant
was not as pleasant a task as she had thought it.

"Dunno, chile. I'se shore I'd never ask it of any woman if I was a
man, 'less I was sick or ole. But folks don't seem to 'member dat
we've got feelin's, and de best way is not to mind dese ere little
trubbles. You jes leave de boots to me; blackin' can't do dese ole
hands no hurt, and dis ain't no deggydation to me now; I's a free
woman."

"Why, Hepsey, were you ever a slave?" asked the girl, forgetting her
own small injury at this suggestion of the greatest of all wrongs.

"All my life, till I run away five year ago. My ole folks, and eight
brudders and sisters, is down dere in de pit now; waitin' for the
Lord to set 'em free. And He's gwine to do it soon, soon!" As she
uttered the last words, a sudden light chased the tragic shadow from
Hepsey's face, and the solemn fervor of her voice thrilled
Christie's heart. All her anger died out in a great pity, and she
put her hand on the woman's shoulder, saying earnestly:

"I hope so; and I wish I could help to bring that happy day at
once!"

For the first time Hepsey smiled, as she said gratefully, "De Lord
bress you for dat wish, chile." Then, dropping suddenly into her
old, quiet way, she added, turning to her work:

"Now you tote up de dinner, and I'll be handy by to 'fresh your mind
'bout how de dishes goes, for missis is bery 'ticular, and don't
like no 'stakes in tendin'."

Thanks to her own neat-handed ways and Hepsey's prompting through
the slide, Christie got on very well; managed her salver
dexterously, only upset one glass, clashed one dish-cover, and
forgot to sugar the pie before putting it on the table; an omission
which was majestically pointed out, and graciously pardoned as a
first offence.

By seven o'clock the ceremonial was fairly over, and Christie
dropped into a chair quite tired out with frequent pacings to and
fro. In the kitchen she found the table spread for one, and Hepsey
busy with the boots.

"Aren't you coming to your dinner, Mrs. Johnson?" she asked, not
pleased at the arrangement.

"When you's done, honey; dere's no hurry 'bout me. Katy liked dat
way best, and I'se used ter waitin'."

"But I don't like that way, and I won't have it. I suppose Katy
thought her white skin gave her a right to be disrespectful to a
woman old enough to be her mother just because she was black. I
don't; and while I'm here, there must be no difference made. If we
can work together, we can eat together; and because you have been a
slave is all the more reason I should be good to you now."

If Hepsey had been surprised by the new girl's protest against being
made a boot-jack of, she was still more surprised at this sudden
kindness, for she had set Christie down in her own mind as "one ob
dem toppin' smart ones dat don't stay long nowheres." She changed
her opinion now, and sat watching the girl with a new expression on
her face, as Christie took boot and brush from her, and fell to work
energetically, saying as she scrubbed:

"I'm ashamed of complaining about such a little thing as this, and
don't mean to feel degraded by it, though I should by letting you do
it for me. I never lived out before: that's the reason I made a
fuss. There's a polish, for you, and I'm in a good humor again; so
Mr. Stuart may call for his boots whenever he likes, and we'll go to
dinner like fashionable people, as we are."

There was something so irresistible in the girl's hearty manner,
that Hepsey submitted at once with a visible satisfaction, which
gave a relish to Christie's dinner, though it was eaten at a kitchen
table, with a bare-armed cook sitting opposite, and three rows of
burnished dish-covers reflecting the dreadful spectacle.

After this, Christie got on excellently, for she did her best, and
found both pleasure and profit in her new employment. It gave her
real satisfaction to keep the handsome rooms in order, to polish
plate, and spread bountiful meals. There was an atmosphere of ease
and comfort about her which contrasted agreeably with the shabbiness
of Mrs. Flint's boarding-house, and the bare simplicity of the old
home. Like most young people, Christie loved luxury, and was
sensible enough to see and value the comforts of her situation, and
to wonder why more girls placed as she was did not choose a life
like this rather than the confinements of a sewing-room, or the
fatigue and publicity of a shop.

She did not learn to love her mistress, because Mrs. Stuart
evidently considered herself as one belonging to a superior race of
beings, and had no desire to establish any of the friendly relations
that may become so helpful and pleasant to both mistress and maid.
She made a royal progress through her dominions every morning,
issued orders, found fault liberally, bestowed praise sparingly, and
took no more personal interest in her servants than if they were
clocks, to be wound up once a day, and sent away the moment they got
out of repair.

Mr. Stuart was absent from morning till night, and all Christie ever
knew about him was that he was a kind-hearted, hot-tempered, and
very conceited man; fond of his wife, proud of the society they
managed to draw about them, and bent on making his way in the world
at any cost.

If masters and mistresses knew how skilfully they are studied,
criticised, and imitated by their servants, they would take more
heed to their ways, and set better examples, perhaps. Mrs. Stuart
never dreamed that her quiet, respectful Jane kept a sharp eye on
all her movements, smiled covertly at her affectations, envied her
accomplishments, and practised certain little elegancies that struck
her fancy.

Mr. Stuart would have become apoplectic with indignation if he had
known that this too intelligent table-girl often contrasted her
master with his guests, and dared to think him wanting in good
breeding when he boasted of his money, flattered a great man, or
laid plans to lure some lion into his house. When he lost his
temper, she always wanted to laugh, he bounced and bumbled about so
like an angry blue-bottle fly; and when he got himself up
elaborately for a party, this disrespectful hussy confided to Hepsey
her opinion that "master was a fat dandy, with nothing to be vain of
but his clothes,"--a sacrilegious remark which would have caused her
to be summarily ejected from the house if it had reached the august
ears of master or mistress.

"My father was a gentleman; and I shall never forget it, though I do
go out to service. I've got no rich friends to help me up, but,
sooner or later, I mean to find a place among cultivated people; and
while I'm working and waiting, I can be fitting myself to fill that
place like a gentlewoman, as I am."

With this ambition in her mind, Christie took notes of all that went
on in the polite world, of which she got frequent glimpses while
"living out." Mrs. Stuart received one evening of each week, and on
these occasions Christie, with an extra frill on her white apron,
served the company, and enjoyed herself more than they did, if the
truth had been known.

While helping the ladies with their wraps, she observed what they
wore, how they carried themselves, and what a vast amount of
prinking they did, not to mention the flood of gossip they talked
while shaking out their flounces and settling their topknots.

Later in the evening, when she passed cups and glasses, this
demure-looking damsel heard much fine discourse, saw many famous
beings, and improved her mind with surreptitious studies of the rich
and great when on parade. But her best time was after supper, when,
through the crack of the door of the little room where she was
supposed to be clearing away the relics of the feast, she looked and
listened at her ease; laughed at the wits, stared at the lions,
heard the music, was impressed by the wisdom, and much edified by
the gentility of the whole affair.

After a time, however, Christie got rather tired of it, for there
was an elegant sameness about these evenings that became intensely
wearisome to the uninitiated, but she fancied that as each had his
part to play he managed to do it with spirit. Night after night the
wag told his stories, the poet read his poems, the singers warbled,
the pretty women simpered and dressed, the heavy scientific was duly
discussed by the elect precious, and Mrs. Stuart, in amazing
costumes, sailed to and fro in her most swan-like manner; while my
lord stirred up the lions he had captured, till they roared their
best, great and small.

"Good heavens! why don't they do or say something new and
interesting, and not keep twaddling on about art, and music, and
poetry, and cosmos? The papers are full of appeals for help for the
poor, reforms of all sorts, and splendid work that others are doing;
but these people seem to think it isn't genteel enough to be spoken
of here. I suppose it is all very elegant to go on like a set of
trained canaries, but it's very dull fun to watch them, and Hepsey's
stories are a deal more interesting to me."

Having come to this conclusion, after studying dilettanteism through
the crack of the door for some months, Christie left the "trained
canaries" to twitter and hop about their gilded cage, and devoted
herself to Hepsey, who gave her glimpses into another sort of life
so bitterly real that she never could forget it.

HEPSEY.

Friendship had prospered in the lower regions, for Hepsey had a
motherly heart, and Christie soon won her confidence by bestowing
her own. Her story was like many another; yet, being the first
Christie had ever heard, and told with the unconscious eloquence of
one who had suffered and escaped, it made a deep impression on her,
bringing home to her a sense of obligation so forcibly that she
began at once to pay a little part of the great debt which the white
race owes the black.

Christie loved books; and the attic next her own was full of them.
To this store she found her way by a sort of instinct as sure as
that which leads a fly to a honey-pot, and, finding many novels, she
read her fill. This amusement lightened many heavy hours, peopled
the silent house with troops of friends, and, for a time, was the
joy of her life.

Hepsey used to watch her as she sat buried in her book when the
day's work was done, and once a heavy sigh roused Christie from the
most exciting crisis of "The Abbot."

"What's the matter? Are you very tired, Aunty?" she asked, using the
name that came most readily to her lips.

"No, honey; I was only wishin' I could read fast like you does. I's
berry slow 'bout readin' and I want to learn a heap," answered
Hepsey, with such a wistful look in her soft eyes that Christie shut
her book, saying briskly:

"Then I'll teach you. Bring out your primer and let's begin at
once."

"Dear chile, it's orful hard work to put learnin' in my ole head,
and I wouldn't 'cept such a ting from you only I needs dis sort of
help so bad, and I can trust you to gib it to me as I wants it."

Then in a whisper that went straight to Christie's heart, Hepsey
told her plan and showed what help she craved.

For five years she had worked hard, and saved her earnings for the
purpose of her life. When a considerable sum had been hoarded up,
she confided it to one whom she believed to be a friend, and sent
him to buy her old mother. But he proved false, and she never saw
either mother or money. It was a hard blow, but she took heart and
went to work again, resolving this time to trust no one with the
dangerous part of the affair, but when she had scraped together
enough to pay her way she meant to go South and steal her mother at
the risk of her life.

"I don't want much money, but I must know little 'bout readin' and
countin' up, else I'll get lost and cheated. You'll help me do dis,
honey, and I'll bless you all my days, and so will my old mammy, if
I ever gets her safe away."

With tears of sympathy shining on her cheeks, and both hands
stretched out to the poor soul who implored this small boon of her,
Christie promised all the help that in her lay, and kept her word
religiously.

From that time, Hepsey's cause was hers; she laid by a part of her
wages for "ole mammy," she comforted Hepsey with happy prophecies of
success, and taught with an energy and skill she had never known
before. Novels lost their charms now, for Hepsey could give her a
comedy and tragedy surpassing any thing she found in them, because
truth stamped her tales with a power and pathos the most gifted
fancy could but poorly imitate.

The select receptions upstairs seemed duller than ever to her now,
and her happiest evenings were spent in the tidy kitchen, watching
Hepsey laboriously shaping A's and B's, or counting up on her worn
fingers the wages they had earned by months of weary work, that she
might purchase one treasure,--a feeble, old woman, worn out with
seventy years of slavery far away there in Virginia.

For a year Christie was a faithful servant to her mistress, who
appreciated her virtues, but did not encourage them; a true friend
to poor Hepsey, who loved her dearly, and found in her sympathy and
affection a solace for many griefs and wrongs. But Providence had
other lessons for Christie, and when this one was well learned she
was sent away to learn another phase of woman's life and labor.

While their domestics amused themselves with privy conspiracy and
rebellion at home, Mr. and Mrs. Stuart spent their evenings in
chasing that bright bubble called social success, and usually came
home rather cross because they could not catch it.

On one of these occasions they received a warm welcome, for, as they
approached the house, smoke was seen issuing from an attic window,
and flames flickering behind the half-drawn curtain. Bursting out of
the carriage with his usual impetuosity, Mr. Stuart let himself in
and tore upstairs shouting "Fire!" like an engine company.

In the attic Christie was discovered lying dressed upon her bed,
asleep or suffocated by the smoke that filled the room. A book had
slipped from her hand, and in falling had upset the candle on a
chair beside her; the long wick leaned against a cotton gown hanging
on the wall, and a greater part of Christie's wardrobe was burning
brilliantly.

"I forbade her to keep the gas lighted so late, and see what the
deceitful creature has done with her private candle!" cried Mrs.
Stuart with a shrillness that roused the girl from her heavy sleep
more effectually than the anathemas Mr. Stuart was fulminating
against the fire.

Sitting up she looked dizzily about her. The smoke was clearing
fast, a window having been opened; and the tableau was a striking
one. Mr. Stuart with an excited countenance was dancing frantically
on a heap of half-consumed clothes pulled from the wall. He had not
only drenched them with water from bowl and pitcher, but had also
cast those articles upon the pile like extinguishers, and was
skipping among the fragments with an agility which contrasted with
his stout figure in full evening costume, and his besmirched face,
made the sight irresistibly ludicrous.

Mrs. Stuart, though in her most regal array, seemed to have left her
dignity downstairs with her opera cloak, for with skirts gathered
closely about her, tiara all askew, and face full of fear and anger,
she stood upon a chair and scolded like any shrew.

The comic overpowered the tragic, and being a little hysterical with
the sudden alarm, Christie broke into a peal of laughter that sealed
her fate.

"Look at her! look at her!" cried Mrs. Stuart gesticulating on her
perch as if about to fly. "She has been at the wine, or lost her
wits. She must go, Horatio, she must go! I cannot have my nerves
shattered by such dreadful scenes. She is too fond of books, and it
has turned her brain. Hepsey can watch her to-night, and at dawn she
shall leave the house for ever."

"Not till after breakfast, my dear. Let us have that in comfort I
beg, for upon my soul we shall need it," panted Mr. Stuart, sinking
into a chair exhausted with the vigorous measures which had quenched
the conflagration.

Christie checked her untimely mirth, explained the probable cause of
the mischief, and penitently promised to be more careful for the
future.

Mr. Stuart would have pardoned her on the spot, but Madame was
inexorable, for she had so completely forgotten her dignity that she
felt it would be impossible ever to recover it in the eyes of this
disrespectful menial. Therefore she dismissed her with a lecture
that made both mistress and maid glad to part.

She did not appear at breakfast, and after that meal Mr. Stuart paid
Christie her wages with a solemnity which proved that he had taken a
curtain lecture to heart. There was a twinkle in his eye, however,
as he kindly added a recommendation, and after the door closed
behind him Christie was sure that he exploded into a laugh at the
recollection of his last night's performance.

This lightened her sense of disgrace very much, so, leaving a part
of her money to repair damages, she packed up her dilapidated
wardrobe, and, making Hepsey promise to report progress from time to
time, Christie went back to Mrs. Flint's to compose her mind and be
ready à la Micawber "for something to turn up."






CHAPTER III.

ACTRESS.





FEELING that she had all the world before her where to choose, and
that her next step ought to take her up at least one round higher on
the ladder she was climbing, Christie decided not to try going out
to service again. She knew very well that she would never live with
Irish mates, and could not expect to find another Hepsey. So she
tried to get a place as companion to an invalid, but failed to
secure the only situation of the sort that was offered her, because
she mildly objected to waiting on a nervous cripple all day, and
reading aloud half the night. The old lady called har an
"impertinent baggage," and Christie retired in great disgust,
resolving not to be a slave to anybody.

Things seldom turn out as we plan them, and after much waiting and
hoping for other work Christie at last accepted about the only
employment which had not entered her mind.

Among the boarders at Mrs. Flint's were an old lady and her pretty
daughter, both actresses at a respectable theatre. Not stars by any
means, but good second-rate players, doing their work creditably and
earning an honest living. The mother had been kind to Christie in
offering advice, and sympathizing with her disappointments. The
daughter, a gay little lass, had taken Christie to the theatre
several times, there to behold her in all the gauzy glories that
surround the nymphs of spectacular romance.

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