LETTER XXIX


MY DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER,

I must write on, though I shall come so soon; for now I have hardly any
thing else to do. I have finished all that lay upon me, and only wait
the good time of setting out. Mrs. Jervis said, I must be low in pocket,
for what I had laid out; and so would have presented me with two guineas
of her five; but I could not take them of her, because, poor gentlewoman,
she pays old debts for her children, that were extravagant, and wants
them herself. This, though, was very good in her.

I am sorry I shall have but little to bring with me; but I know you
won't, you are so good!--and I will work the harder, when I come home, if
I can get a little plain-work, or any thing, to do. But all your
neighbourhood is so poor, that I fear I shall want work, except, may be,
dame Mumford can help me to something, from any good family she is
acquainted with.

Here, what a sad thing it is! I have been brought up wrong, as matters
stand. For, you know, my good lady, now in heaven, loved singing and
dancing; and, as she would have it, I had a voice, she made me learn
both; and often and often has she made me sing her an innocent song, and
a good psalm too, and dance before her. And I must learn to flower and
draw too, and to work fine work with my needle; why, all this too I have
got pretty tolerably at my finger's end, as they say; and she used to
praise me, and was a good judge of such matters.