Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/75

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Quiet Walks for Girls
63

go home, and if you are as willing and as eager to succeed as one little woman I know, when the half-hour strikes you will have your pupils hanging to your skirts, expressing their regret at your departure, and wishing that you might live with them "forever and forever."

The average nursery governess is paid thirty dollars a month, and, of course, she has her dinner. Sometimes several families will unite, make a little group of six or eight children, who will all be taught at the house of whoever has the largest nursery. But when that is the case the governess's hours last from nine to one, she is paid more, and she does not dine with her pupils. There is no publicity about this position, a college certificate is not required, it is one that no gentlewoman need scorn, and yet it is said to be very difficult to find a good nursery governess.

ANOTHER NEGLECTED OCCUPATION

It is that of maid. I can see the scoffing air with which this is received, and yet a good maid not only gets good wages, but she has slight expenditure. Her living is paid for, and usually she eats by herself. She is very apt to have the gowns, the black ones, which it is most proper for her to assume, given to her on special occasions. And if she knows anything about her work she can