J. Cole | Page 4

a lot, and never eaten or drank what I gave him, because he wanted to
help, and it was hot in the kitchen, I suppose, and he felt faint like, but
there he is, crying; and just now, when the bell rung, which was two
great big boys after the place, he says, 'Oh, please say "We're sooted,"
and ask the lady if I may stay.' So, I've taken the liberty, ma'am," said
Cook, "for somehow I like that little chap, and there's a deal in him, I
do believe."
So saying, Cook retired; and, in a moment, J. Cole was standing in her
place, the blue eyes brimming over with tears, and an eager anxiety as
to what his fate would be making his poor little hands clutch at his
coat-sleeves, and his feet shuffle about so nervously, that I had not the
courage to grieve him by a refusal.
"Well, Joseph," I said, "I have decided to give you a month's trial. I
shall write to the gentleman who employs your brother; and if he
speaks well of you, you may stay."
"And may I stay now, please?" he said. "May I stay before you gets any
answer to your letter to say I'm all right? I think you'd better let me;
there ain't no boy; and Mrs. Cook and Mary'll 'ave a lot to do. I can stay
in the stable, if you don't like to let me be in the house, afore you writes
the letter."
"No, Joe," I replied: "you may not be a good, honest boy, but I think
you are; and you shall stay here. Now go back to Mrs. Wilson, and
finish your milk, and eat something more if you can, then have a good
rest and a wash; they will show you where you are to sleep, and at
dinner, this evening, I shall see if you can wait at table."
"Thank you very kindly," said the boy, his whole face beaming with
delight, "and I'll be sure and do everythink I can for you." Then he went

quickly out of the room; for I could see he was quite overcome, now
that the uncertainty was over.
Alone once more, I reasoned with myself, and felt I was doing an
unwise thing. Just at that time my husband was away on business for
some months; and I had no one to advise me, and no one to say me nay
either. My conscience told me my husband would say, "We cannot tell
who this boy is, where he has lived, or who are his associates; he may
be connected with a gang of thieves for what we know to the contrary.
Wait, and have proper references before trusting him in the house."
And he would be right to say so to me, but not every one listens to
conscience when it points the opposite way to inclination. Well, J. Cole
remained; and when I entered the dining-room, to my solitary dinner,
he was there, with a face shining from soap and water, his curls
evidently soaped too, to make them go tidily on his forehead. The
former page having left his livery jacket and trousers, Mary had let Joe
dress in them, at his earnest request.
She told me afterwards that he had sewn up the clothes in the neatest
manner wherever they could be made smaller; and the effect of the
jacket, which he had stuffed out in the chest with hay, as we discovered
by the perfume, was very droll. He had a great love of bright colors,
and the trousers being large, showed bright red socks; the jacket sleeves
being much too short for the long arms, of which he was so proud,
allowed the wristbands of a vivid blue flannel shirt to be seen.
I was alone, so could put up with this droll figure at my elbow; but the
seriousness of his face was such a contrast to the comicality of the rest
of him, that I found myself beginning to smile every now and then, but
directly I saw the serious eyes on me, I felt obliged to become grave at
once.
The waiting at table I could not exactly pronounce a success; for,
although Joe's quick eyes detected in an instant if I wanted anything,
his anxiety to be "first in the field," and give Mary no chance of
instructing him in his duties, made him collide against her more than
once in his hasty rushes to the sideboard and back to my elbow with the

dishes, which he generally handed to me long before he reached me, his
long arms enabling him to reach me with his hands while he was yet
some distance from me, and often on the wrong side. I also noticed