Page:Adventures of Susan Hopley (Volume 1).pdf/15

2 stockings and waistcoats, that Susan, rather than let her fingers be idle and not be doing something for somebody, would have knit jackets for the shorn lambs and blankets for the early calves.

Excellent Susan I she is dead now; and sadly, sadly I miss her; for when by the death of my wife and the marriage of my children I grew a lone old man, she became my companion as well as my housekeeper. During the day, whilst I looked after my farm, or wandered over the fields with my gun in my hand, or wrote or read in my library, she was engaged with her household affairs, and superintending the servants; but with the tea urn, in the evening, came Susan, so neat, so clean, with her honest, benevolent face, which although it was not handsome, was the pleasantest face I ever looked upon; and whilst she made my tea—by the by, the flavour of teas is sadly falling off, I observe; it's nothing like what it was in Susan's time but whilst she poured me out the pleasant beverage, and sweetened it exactly to my taste-it's very odd; one would think a man ought to know his own taste, but I always put in too much sugar or too little; and in trying to repair the error, I regularly make things worse but as I was saying, whilst she presided at