Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/58

50 after taking a good hearty cry to herself, she went to work, and, after two or three days of steady application, got the carpets made and tacked down. It is not to be denied that some of the figures were a long ways from matching, and that a number of rough places in the seams attested the young lady’s want of skill in such matters. But the work was done, after a fashion, and that was a good deal. The bedsteads were then put up, the furniture arranged, and the young couple took possession of their new home.

But here a new and undreamed-of difficulty arose. A servant could not be had for love nor money. There was not a woman in the village who had any help, unless she were fortunate enough to have a grown-up daughter, a niece, or an unmarried sister living with her.

“What am I to do?” asked the bride in despair, after she fully understood the disabilities with which housekeeping was to be attended. “I can’t cook and do all the work about the house. I never got a meal’s victuals in my life.”

“We can go back to the tavern and continue boarding, I suppose,” said the young husband, uttering what he did with great reluctance; for the accommodations at the stage-house were little better than no accommodations at all.