Page:Live and Let Live.djvu/81

 does not that change the relation? Rely upon it, we make a fatal mistake, not so much in retaining old terms as in not fitting ourselves for the new relation—" "But stay, Sara, don't you call your servants servants?"

"No, I call them domestics."

"Heaven be praised! I expected you would say help, which is quite too countrified, too like mechanics' wives. But, honestly, don't you think servant sounds more natural, and is the more convenient name?"

"Yes; but I think the wishes of those who bear the name should be consulted, and we all know that servant is so disagreeable to them, especially to the best among them, that it requires some courage and a little hard-heartedness to use it in their presence."

"But is not much of this rank pride, Sara? they not discontented with their subordinate condition, and ought they not to learn that a person may be as truly respectable in one grade as another?"

"Undoubtedly this would be a most valuable lesson learned; but, since the world began, moralists have been teaching, in some form or other, that

and yet how few have learned it. In our own country, the apostle's rule is reversed; and 'in whatsoever condition you are, not to be therewith content,' is the general experience. If, therefore, all are trying to appear, if not to be something better than they are, we ought not to be surprised at