I listened to all that was said about it, very much fearing that
I should not be permitted to do the coveted work. For the feeling
had already frequently come to me, that I was the one too many in
the overcrowded family nest. Once, before we left our old home, I
had heard a neighbor condoling with my mother because there were
so many of us, and her emphatic reply had been a great relief to
my mind:--
"There is isn't one more than I want. I could not spare a single
one of my children."
But her difficulties were increasing, and I thought it would be a
pleasure to feel that I was not a trouble or burden or expense to
anybody. So I went to my first day's work in the mill with a
light heart. The novelty of it made it seem easy, and it really
was not hard, just to change the bobbins on the spinning-frames
every three quarters of an hour or so, with half a dozen othe
little girls who were doing the same thing. When I came back at
night, the family began to pity me for my long, tiresome day's
work, but I laughed and said,--
"Why, it is nothing but fun.
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