Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/59

Rh “I wouldn’t be paid to stay another night in that house,” was the quick reply. “The worst fare we can have here will be better than going back to that wretched place.”

“I fully agree with you,” said the husband. “Bread and water here would be preferable to the richest food there. Try and do the best you can, and I will help you all I know how. It would be a pity, it seems to me, if two young people, with health, and the means of living as we have, could not take care of themselves.”

So it seemed to the young wife; but, then, how was she to do at all? She could make a cup of tea, but that was about the most she could do. As to baking a loaf of bread, she knew no more about doing it than if she had never heard of bread; and the cooking of meat, or the making of pies or puddings, were mysteries of the culinary art far beyond her comprehension.

The attempt to buy bread for the first meal proved unavailing. There was no baker yet in the village. The effort to beg or borrow was more successful. The young man called in at the house of their nearest neighbor, and frankly stated his difficulty. The woman to whom he applied understood the position of the young couple in a moment. She was of the