"ElizaLeeFollen-TheTalkativeWig" - читать интересную книгу автора (Follen Eliza Lee)

There was one family in which she worked where the master and
mistress insisted that at one o'clock Jane should lay aside her
work, and walk till two, when they dined. Then they insisted upon
her dining at their own table, and tried to make her meal a social
and pleasant one.

O, these were white days for poor Jane. Could I not tell when she
was going to work in this family by the way she threw me over her
shoulders? Did I not feel her gentle heart beating with unwonted
warmth as she came home from this family before eight o'clock,
accompanied by the truly good man of the house or some trusty
person? When she hung me up in her small bed room, did I not notice
her grateful, happy smile? She felt that she was recognized by these
good people as a sister and friend, and that the words which we hear
at church and read in the Bible, "All men are brethren," were not
mere words with them.

These evenings she would make her small fire, and sometimes indulge
herself in reading a little while; she would go to bed early, and
did not look so pale in the morning.

Had all the customers of cousin Jane been as kind and considerate as
these good people were, she might have lived; and I should, perhaps,
have continued in her possession; but life was too hard for her,--
she struggled with it for many years, and then her sweet spirit
turned wearily away from it; she grew weaker and weaker, the color
grew brighter and brighter on her cheek, and the light in her eye;
she looked like a spirit; and, ere long, she was one.

My first owner came, as soon as she heard how ill Jane was, and took
her home to this house in the country. Here our good mistress nursed
her poor cousin, and made the last days as happy as she could; but
Jane was weary of this life, and longed for a better one. She passed
away as gently and sweetly as a summer evening cloud or a dying
flower.

Our mistress said to her husband, "All Jane's clothes, except this
dear cloak, I have given to the poor. This I must keep myself; for
it was one of my wedding garments, and dear Jane has made it all the
dearer to me. I shall keep it to lend to friends who are caught here
in the rain; it shall be called the friend's cloak, and shall always
be kept in the closet in the hall, close at hand."

Now, I suppose every one knows of how much use such a cloak is in a
family. Never was a cloak more employed than I, and for all sorts of
things. I was used to play dumb orator. I was at every one's
service. I don't know how they ever did without me.

Don't be astonished that I did not wear out; my lining was strong,