It does seem a shame that the charming relation of master and servant,intelligent authority and cheerful obedience,mutual interest in each other's welfare,thankful recognition of all the advantages which belong to domestic service in the better class of families,should be almost wholly confined to aliens and their immediate descendants.Why should Hannah think herself so much better than Bridget?When they meet at the polls together,as they will before long,they will begin to feel more of an equality than is recognized at present.The native female turns her nose up at the idea of "living out;"does she think herself so much superior to the women of other nationalities?Our women will have to come to it,--so grandmother says,--in another generation or two,and in a hundred years,according to her prophecy,there will be a new set of old "Miss Pollys"and "Miss Betseys"who have lived half a century in the same families,respectful and respected,cherished,cared for in time of need (citizens as well as servants,holding a ballot as well as a broom,I tell her),and bringing back to us the lowly,underfoot virtues of contentment and humility,which we do so need to carpet the barren and hungry thoroughfare of our unstratified existence.
There,I have got a-going,and am forgetting all the news I have to tell you.There is an engagement you will want to know all about.
It came to pass through our famous boat-race,which you and Iremember,and shall never forget as long as we live.It seems that the young fellow who pulled the bow oar of that men's college boat which we had the pleasure of beating got some glimpses of Georgina,our handsome stroke oar.I believe he took it into his head that it was she who threw the bouquet that won the race for us.He was,as you know,greatly mistaken,and ought to have made love to me,only he did n't.Well,it seems he came posting down to the Institute just before the vacation was over,and there got a sight of Georgina.
I wonder whether she told him she didn't fling the bouquet!Anyhow,the acquaintance began in that way,and now it seems that this young fellow,good-looking and a bright scholar,but with a good many months more to pass in college,is her captive.It was too bad.
Just think of my bouquet's going to another girl's credit!No matter,the old Atalanta story was paid off,at any rate.
You want to know all about dear Dr.Butts.They say he has just been offered a Professorship in one of the great medical colleges.Iasked him about it,and he did not say that he had or had not.
"But,"said be,"suppose that I had been offered such a place;do you think I ought to accept it and leave Arrowhead Village?Let us talk it over,"said he,"just as if I had had such an offer."I told him he ought to stay.There are plenty of men that can get into a Professor's chair,I said,and talk like Solomons to a class of wondering pupils:but once get a really good doctor in a place,a man who knows all about everybody,whether they have this or that tendency,whether when they are sick they have a way of dying or a way of getting well,what medicines agree with them and what drugs they cannot take,whether they are of the sort that think nothing is the matter with them until they are dead as smoked herring,or of the sort that send for the minister if they get a stomach-ache from eating too many cucumbers,--who knows all about all the people within half a dozen miles (all the sensible ones,that is,who employ a regular practitioner),--such a man as that,I say,is not to be replaced like a missing piece out of a Springfield musket or a Waltham watch.Don't go!said I.Stay here and save our precious lives,if you can,or at least put us through in the proper way,so that we needn't be ashamed of ourselves for dying,if we must die.
Well,Dr.Butts is not going to leave us.I hope you will have no unwelcome occasion for his services,--you are never ill,you know,--but,anyhow,he is going to be here,and no matter what happens he will be on hand.
The village news is not of a very exciting character.Item 1.A new house is put up over the ashes of the one in which your husband lived while he was here.It was planned by one of the autochthonous inhabitants with the most ingenious combination of inconveniences that the natural man could educe from his original perversity of intellect.To get at any one room you must pass through every other.
It is blind,or nearly so,on the only side which has a good prospect,and commands a fine view of the barn and pigsty through numerous windows.Item 2.We have a small fire-engine near the new house which can be worked by a man or two,and would be equal to the emergency of putting out a bunch of fire-crackers.Item 3.We have a new ladder,in a bog,close to the new fire-engine,so if the new house catches fire,like its predecessor,and there should happen to,be a sick man on an upper floor,he can be got out without running the risk of going up and down a burning staircase.What a blessed thing it was that there was no fire-engine near by and no ladder at hand on the day of the great rescue!If there had been,what a change in your programme of life!You remember that "cup of tea spilt on Mrs.Masham's apron,"which we used to read of in one of Everett's Orations,and all its wide-reaching consequences in the affairs of Europe.I hunted up that cup of tea as diligently as ever a Boston matron sought for the last leaves in her old caddy after the tea-chests had been flung overboard at Griffin's wharf,--but no matter about that,now.That is the way things come about in this world.I must write a lecture on lucky mishaps,or,more elegantly,fortunate calamities.It will be just the converse of that odd essay of Swift's we read together,the awkward and stupid things done with the best intentions.Perhaps I shall deliver the lecture in your city:you will come and hear it,and bring him,won't you,dearest?
Always,your loving LURIDA.
MISS LURIDA VINCENT TO MRS.EUTHYMIA KIRKWOOD.
