Flower (2005)
“She lives in, and I live out.
I’ve been boarded in ever so many places since I was a baby. I’m six, getting on for seven. At Mrs. Riley’s, where I am now, I hem hankies. All day I sit and hem. She slaps me when the stitches are crooked or too big, then I have to do them over. Mrs. Riley says I sew with the wrong hand. She won’t let me use my left hand, my bad hand she calls it, but that’s the only way I can hem. I don’t like sewing. Mrs. Riley watches me and hits my knuckles with the wooden spo...on if she catches me using my bad hand.
When Queen Victoria died last year, we were sewing black armbands all day long. Even the twins, Ethel and Esther, and they’re younger than me, were helping. Rosie’s got poor eyes; she can hardly see. Mrs. Riley hates her more than any of us. She gets money paid regular for Rosie–that’s why she keeps her.
Mrs. Riley likes her own boy, Bert. He’s big and mean, always pinching us. I told Helen he looks up our dresses, and she sighed and said, “Keep out of his way.”MoreLess
I’ve been boarded in ever so many places since I was a baby. I’m six, getting on for seven. At Mrs. Riley’s, where I am now, I hem hankies. All day I sit and hem. She slaps me when the stitches are crooked or too big, then I have to do them over. Mrs. Riley says I sew with the wrong hand. She won’t let me use my left hand, my bad hand she calls it, but that’s the only way I can hem. I don’t like sewing. Mrs. Riley watches me and hits my knuckles with the wooden spo...on if she catches me using my bad hand.
When Queen Victoria died last year, we were sewing black armbands all day long. Even the twins, Ethel and Esther, and they’re younger than me, were helping. Rosie’s got poor eyes; she can hardly see. Mrs. Riley hates her more than any of us. She gets money paid regular for Rosie–that’s why she keeps her.
Mrs. Riley likes her own boy, Bert. He’s big and mean, always pinching us. I told Helen he looks up our dresses, and she sighed and said, “Keep out of his way.”MoreLess
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