I think, between us, we might put it into comfortable
order."
Mrs. Mellicent, a little shocked at her niece's avowing her expertness
in these handicraft employments, apprehended that her lamented sister
had neglected her daughter's education through her solicitous attention
to more important duties. She began therefore to question her about her
accomplishments--"Can you work tent-stitch neat, my love?" was her first
inquiry. "No!"--"Bless me, had you leather hangings to your best
apartments?" Isabel was ignorant what hangings meant. Mrs. Mellicent
proceeded to examine her skill in confectionery, and found with
astonishment it was a science of which she did not know the name. "Can
you paint chimney-boards, or cut paper, or work samplers?" "Dear aunt,"
said Isabel, "I am a brown bird of the mountains, as my mother called
me. She taught me to sing, because she said it made work go on more
merrily, but the longest day was short enough for what I had to do; I
was laundress, and sempstress, and cook, and gardener; and if Cicely
went to look for the sheep, I had to milk and bake, and at night I
mended my father's fishing-nets, while I was learning Latin with
Eustace.
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