Page:Creole Sketches.djvu/130

100 If washerwomen have their faults, it must be remembered they have their trials and afflictions. Many of them have been spoiled by bad treatment.

There is no sort of thieving so contemptible as to beat one's washerwoman; but we doubt if any other class of working-people are so much victimized.

It is pretty rough to labor hard all the week, working until one is ready to drop down with fatigue; obliged to watch changes of weather; obliged sometimes when a clothes-line breaks to do all the work over again; obliged to furnish one's own soap and starch and blueing; —

And then to carry the work to those who ordered it, — all nice and clean and pretty, — expecting to receive the just reward of one's labor; —

But, on the contrary, to receive nothing but lying promises and sometimes even hard words; —