Louise
was ready to leave before any of the other girls were up and left as quickly as
she could. After preparing breakfast and milking the cow, Louise, in her work
clothes, left for town.
<:::>
“Yes,
sir” Louise answered to the tall, aged man that was the owner of the store
“Are you a hard worker, Louise
Hanson?” he asked.
“ I always try to be, sir,” she said
humbly.
“Are you or are you not?” growled
the man.
“Yes, sir”
“Good, because, we don’t need any
slackers around here. Alright, your hired, here is your list of things that are
needed to be done, and I want you to run any errands that Josh, over there,
tells you to do,” Josh glanced over checking why his name had been mentioned
and slowly went back to work, ”Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” Louise said, “ I
understand.”
“Alright then start working, and
every couple of days I’ll come and check how you are doing.” With that, the old
man left the shop.
“Pretty tough, isn’t he?” asked
Josh, the young clergyman,
“He’s just doing his job,” Louise
said politely. Josh stopped to put his hands on top of his broom, laid his head
on them, and looked at her curiously.
“Did you know how surprised I was
when you came and asked to work here? Do you know why we don’t have any one
already working here, I mean it’s a good job for a lady who’s husband has a low
paying job to get some extra money. And I’ll tell you there’re plenty of them
out there. It’s because of his temper.
He was a lot nicer to you this morning because you’re new and he
didn’t want to scare you off. We have had signs out for weeks and weeks, months
even. No one came. All because they knew about his anger, but he refuses to be
kind no matter what.” Louise looked at him after starring down at the floor in
thought as Josh had spoken.
“Then why are you here?” she said
after some thought.
“I’m his son,” he stated simply.
“Oh,” Louise looked at her feet, “Well
I better get to work. I don’t wan to be known as a slacker!” and off she was
dusting and cleaning. Soon Louise found her way to the cloth and material and
fancied the beautiful fabric, Quickly catching herself, she continued to dust.
It was about three in the afternoon
when Josh called he over to the check-out counter.
“ Louise-“ He began but she
interrupted him.
“ Miss Hanson, please,” she
requested, curtsied politely, then waited for him to continue.
“Miss Hanson,” he corrected himself
slowly, “I would like you to watch the check out for me while I run a short
errand. I’ll be back soon so don’t worry about not knowing what to do.”
“What
am I supposed to say?”
“Say ‘Hello, how may I help you’ and
I think you can take it from there. I’ll be back before you can say a word!”
and then he left the shop, Banging the door. Louise stood at the counter and
examined her list of things to do she had already done six of them four to go.
Sighing, Louise began to clear the small checking area. There were disheveled
piles of receipts, paper and different odds and ends. Louise jerked from her
work by the sound of clopping heels.
“May I help you wi-“ before Louise
could finish the plump and gaudily dressed woman spoke in rudely
“Hurry up. I want two pounds of sugar.
Make it quick” the lady wasn’t necessarily dressed richly. She looked like a
moderately poor person trying to look rich which made it all the more
disgusting. Thankfully the young, inexperienced cashier knew where the sugar
was kept and ran to get some. Louise hurried to the old woman and handed her
the pounds of sweetness and had it snatch from her with greedy arms. The woman
stomped out of the shop. Few! That was quite the customer. Louise thought. Just then Josh came in the
store with two large burlap sacks on his shoulders.
“I see you got a customer. One of
the mean ones,” he commented. Louise nodded her head. They worked on silently
for the rest of the day a costumer would come in every now and then, buy a few
things, and then walk out. Finally it was time for the shop to close.
“Here, Lo-Miss Hanson, is your pay
for the day. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Josh said as he handed her two dollars.
Louise took them gratefully.
“Thank
you for getting me this job. I am more than thankful.” She acknowledged.
“You are more than welcome.” He
replied. Louise left the General Store and started her trek homeward. When she arrived home all three girls came
rushing forward, Alison called out,
“Guess what! Guess what, Sister!”
Louise
was dumb founded
“Oh, my! What is it? What is going
on?” all four sisters were talking at once Louise didn’t understand a word.
“Wait a moment. Calm down, Alison tell me what is going on.”
“ A new neighbor just moved in next door! That
darling big house down the road a few miles, he moved into that one! And there
are maids everywhere! Oh but I guess we should go inside and tell you the story
and then you can tell us what happened at work,” Alison added. So all the girls
walked to the house and sat around their “table” to talk. The story was told.
