Her wish was to be a governess, that being the
usual refuge for respectable girls who have a living to get. But
Christie soon found her want of accomplishments a barrier to success
in that line, for the mammas thought less of the solid than of the
ornamental branches, and wished their little darlings to learn
French before English, music before grammar, and drawing before
writing.
So, after several disappointments, Christie decided that her
education was too old-fashioned for the city, and gave up the idea
of teaching. Sewing she resolved not to try till every thing else
failed; and, after a few more attempts to get writing to do, she
said to herself, in a fit of humility and good sense: "I'll begin at
the beginning, and work my way up. I'll put my pride in my pocket,
and go out to service. Housework I like, and can do well, thanks to
Aunt Betsey. I never thought it degradation to do it for her, so why
should I mind doing it for others if they pay for it? It isn't what
I want, but it's better than idleness, so I'll try it!"
Full of this wise resolution, she took to haunting that purgatory of
the poor, an intelligence office. Mrs. Flint gave her a
recommendation, and she hopefully took her place among the ranks of
buxom German, incapable Irish, and "smart" American women; for in
those days foreign help had not driven farmers' daughters out of the
field, and made domestic comfort a lost art.
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