Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/189

 her directions, the stout girl tell to work, and hoisted out the bed and bed-clothes, which she carried to the barn-yard; the only place about the house where there was a spot of green grass. The check curtains followed, and in their removal effected the sudden ruin of many a goodly cob-web, which had never before met with the smallest molestation. When the lower vallence was removed, it displayed a scene still more extraordinary; a hoard of the remains of all the old shoes that had ever been worn by any member of the family; staves of broken tubs, ends of decayed rope, and a long et cetera of useless articles, so covered with blue mould and dust, that it seemed surprising the very spiders did not quit the colony in disgust.

Mrs Mason sickened at the sight. Perceiving what an unpleasant task she should be obliged to impose on her assistant, she deemed herself in justice bound to recompense her for the trouble; and, holding