The Talkative Wig | Page 3

English, you Hushan!" shouted the musket with a kick.
"I am sorry to hurt your feelings, my old soldier," said the good natured
cloak. "I think, however, it is rather hard of you to keep the name of
Hessian as a term of reproach forever, just because a few poor
miserable fellows once came over here to fight you. Was it not enough
to have treated them as you say you did in the Jerseys? For the benefit
of you and those less prejudiced, I will translate the couplet:--
"Where I singing hear, I lay me, free from fear. Men intent on wrong
Never have a song."
I was a singer myself once during the short time when I was connected
with one of dame spinning wheel's relatives. I am not even a laugher
now. Still I am contented and cheerful, and I remember past trials
without any bitterness. I went through all processes of carding,
spinning, weaving, dyeing, stretching, dressing, &c., and was at last
placed in a shop for sale. A beautiful young girl purchased me for her
bridal pelisse. Never did a happier heart beat than did hers on the
Sunday after she was married, when she wore me to the church,
holding by her husband's arm. I could not but partake of the pleasure
which she received from the gentle pressure of his arm when she put
hers within his, saying, "I am glad, dear, you like my pelisse so much."
O, how happy we all were! How proud my mistress was of me! How
proud I was of her! I hate to pass hastily over these happy days, but I
suppose the history of them would not be very interesting to any of my
hearers; for one day was very much like another. Never did any
garment cover a more innocent, joyful heart than that of my mistress.
I lasted well for some years, but my sleeves, at last, became threadbare;

soon after, there were actual holes in them, and holes also in my waist;
I was, I must confess, a shabby-looking pelisse.
My dear mistress took me into her hands one day, and, after examining
me all over, said, with a sigh, "I cannot wear it any longer; I must give
it up." At last, her expression brightened and she added, "I can give it to
cousin Jane; I am very tall, and she is very short. The skirt is good, and
she can make a cloak of it; and so my precious pelisse will still be
where I can see it."
Forthwith I was sent to cousin Jane, with a very pretty note explaining
to her the reasons why her cousin took the liberty of offering her the
old pelisse. Cousin Jane wanted a cloak, and could not afford to buy
one; so I was carefully ripped up and turned, and made into a very
respectable garment.
Cousin Jane was a dressmaker; and, in her service, I learned something
of what dressmakers have to endure. She had not been long engaged in
her trade; and, at first, she would put me on in the morning with a brisk,
vigorous manner, but in the evening, when she returned home, how
differently she took me up! how differently she threw me over her
weary shoulders!
Soon she ceased to put me on in the morning in the same strong, elastic
manner, but took me up languidly, and as if she dreaded the day, and,
when she went into the air, wrapped me very closely about her, just as
if I was her only comfort, and pressed me to her heart, as if in hopes it
would ache less.
Poor dear cousin Jane, my heart aches to think of her. Day after day,
from morning till night, and often till the next day began, she toiled and
toiled, stooping over her work, sewing, sewing, hour after hour, and
day after day, stooping all the time, till her eyes lost their brightness,
her step all its elasticity, till her shoulders grew round, and her health
failed.
O, had those for whom she labored, for her small day's wages, but
observed how the lamp of life was gradually going out, they would not

have allowed her so to work without any respite; they would have made
her take better care of her own health; they would have sent her home
early; they would not have allowed her to work thirteen or fourteen
hours a day in their service.
There was one family in which she worked where the master and
mistress insisted that at one o'clock Jane should lay aside her work, and
walk till two, when they dined. Then they insisted upon her dining at
their own table, and tried to make her meal a social and pleasant one.