8. Iic
The first night she spent itic was a thing Sara never fot. During its passing she lived through a wild, unchildlike woe of which she never spoke to anyone about her. There was no one who would have uood. It was, indeed, well for her that as she lay awake in the darkness her mind was forcibly distracted, now and then, by the strangeness of her surroundings. It erhaps, well for her that she was reminded by her small body of material things. If this had not been so, the anguish of her young mind might have been too great for a child to bear. But, really, while the night assing she scarcely khat she had a body at all or remembered any other thing than one.
"My papa is dead!" she kept whispering to herself. "My papa is dead!"
It was not until long afterward that she realized that her bed had been so hard that she turned over and over in it to find a place to rest, that the darkness seemed more intehan any she had ever known, and that the wind howled over the roof among the eys like something which wailed aloud. Then there was something worse. This was certain scufflings and scratgs and squeakings in the walls and behind the skirting boards. She knew what they meant, because Becky had described them. They meant rats and mice who were either fighting with each other or playing together. Once or twice she even heard sharp-toed feet scurrying across the floor, and she remembered in those after days, when she recalled things, that when first she heard them she started up in bed and sat trembling, and when she lay down again covered her head with the bedclothes.
The ge in her life did not e about gradually, but was made all at once.
"She must begin as she is to go on," Miss Min said to Miss Amelia. "She must be taught at once what she is to expect."
Mariette had left the house the m. The glimpse Sara caught of her sitting room, as she passed its open door, showed her that everything had been ged. Her ors and luxuries had been removed, and a bed had been placed in a er to transform it into a new pupils bedroom.
When she went down to breakfast she saw that her seat at Miss Mins side was occupied by Lavinia, and Miss Min spoke to her coldly.
"You will begin your new duties, Sara," she said, "by taking your seat with the younger children at a smaller table. You must keep them quiet, ahat they behave well and do not waste their food. You ought to have been down earlier. Lottie has already upset her tea."
That was the beginning, and from day to day the duties given to her were added to. She taught the younger children Frend heard their other lessons, and these were the least of her labors. It was found that she could be made use of in numberless dires. She could be sent on errands at any time and in all weathers. She could be told to do things other people ed. The cook and the housemaids took their tone from Miss Min, and rather enjoyed about the "young one" who had been made so much fuss over for so long. They were not servants of the best class, and had her good manners nood tempers, and it was frequently veo have at hand someone on whom blame could be laid.
During the first month or two, Sara thought that her willio do things as well as she could, and her silender reproof, might soften those who drove her so hard. In her proud little heart she wahem to see that she was trying to earn her living and not accepting charity. But the time came when she saw that no one was softe all;