.'GOD'S PEACE' 331
away. The families she worked for were certainly not cheated, and one could not accuse her of being exorbitant in her demands. Her salary, which she refused to have raised, considering it quite sufficient, was six skilling (2|d.) a day. But of course she had her food, and in regard to the food people spoiled Ann Marie by always trying to give her her favourite dishes. One cannot say that this meant any great extravagance on the part of the housewife, and it made her visit doubly welcome for us children, for Ann Marie had also in regard to food retained a decided childishness. If she should have mentioned the menu that tempted her most she would, without hesitation, have answered sweet soup and pancakes.
From my earliest childhood and until we left the town Ann Marie came to our house every Thursday. If she was a little shadow in the street, she became a ray of sunshine in the house. She was always content, always full of gratitude for her happiness, and for everybody's kindness to her,— always smiling with her big, brown child's eyes. But it was only when she was alone with us children that she became talkative. Grown-up people frightened her a little with their seriousness and common sense. But with children she felt in the right element, their little sorrows and joys she understood as though they were her own. Their ideas and interests were also hers. All the afternoon, after we came home from school, we sat with her in the
