Kates Ordeal

Kate's Ordeal, by Emma Leslie

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Title: Kate's Ordeal
Author: Emma Leslie

Release Date: January 7, 2007 [eBook #20307]
Language: English
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KATE'S ORDEAL
by
EMMA LESLIE

[Frontispiece: William in the shop.]

The National Sunday School Union 57 & 59 Ludgate Hill, London,
B.C. 4 Printed 1887

CONTENTS.
THE MESSAGE
DID SHE FORGET?
IN LONDON
THE LOST PURSE
A DISCLOSURE
AT THE THEATRE
CONCLUSION

ILLUSTRATIONS.
William in the shop . . . . . . Frontispiece
Miss Eldon's visit

KATE'S ORDEAL
CHAPTER I.
THE MESSAGE.
"Do you think Katie Haydon is pretty--I don't?" and the speaker
glanced at her own bright curls as she spoke.
"Well, I don't know whether she is exactly pretty, but she always looks
nice, and then she is so pleasant and merry, and----"
"And so vain and stuck-up," put in the first speaker again.
"Oh, how can you say so?" said another, a plain, quiet-looking girl,
who had not spoken before. "Mother says she would make such a nice
nurse-maid; so quiet and bright as she is, children would be sure to take
to her."
"Well, I don't know so much about that, Mary, but I know she has
asked teacher about a situation--her mother wants her to go into the
nursery."
"My mother wants me to do the same," said quiet Mary Green, "but
although I have spoken to teacher I do not expect to hear of anything
until Katie is suited, for she asked first, and people are sure to choose
her in preference to me." This was said without the least touch of envy
or jealousy. Before anyone could reply to it, Katie herself joined the
group. "Are we not late?" she said, breathless with her run to catch
them before they reached the school. "I have some news for you. What
do you think--I am going to London!" she panted, fanning herself with
her pocket-handkerchief, and casting a triumphant glance at Esther
Odell, the girl who had called her proud and stuck-up. Esther was
always talking about going to London, and saying disparaging things of
going to service--servants were vulgar and despised and she never
would be a servant, though her mother and father both said she ought to

get a situation. This was how Esther had talked, and it gave Kate
Haydon no small pleasure to be able to come and tell her schoolfellow
that she was going to the wonderful city first.
"Is it settled, Katie?" asked Mary. "Have you got a situation--are you
going to service?"
Katie shook her head. "I am going to serve in a shop. My cousin has
got a nice place at a baker's and confectioner's, and they want
somebody to help her, and she has written to me about it."
"What a lucky girl you are!" exclaimed Esther, in a tone of envy. "It
does seem hard, too, for that is just the kind of situation I want, and I
daresay you would have been as well pleased if it had been in the
nursery."
"My mother would have liked it better, I do believe," laughed Katie,
"for she seems half afraid to let me go to London, and serve in a shop
too!"
"Here comes teacher!" said Mary Green, and the conversation was
dropped, as the girls hurried forward to meet the lady.
They went into school together, and in the bustle of getting their seats,
Miss Eldon whispered to Kate, "Will you ask your mother to come and
see me to-morrow morning, Kate?"
"Yes, ma'am," answered the girl, wondering not a little what her
teacher could want to see her mother about--quite forgetting the request
she had made to the lady a few weeks before. The lesson for that
Sunday afternoon was about the honour and dignity of work and
service, for the lady knew that some of her class had adopted the
foolish notions of Esther Odell, and did not fail to bring forward this
subject whenever she had the opportunity, pointing out how God had
made it necessary for all to work and serve their fellow-men. Then she
went on to speak of the word "angel," and how in its original sense it
meant servants, and how many a household servant was