“I will take care of that. Come, give me your arm. The boy can stay here
and take care of the linen, and I’ll come back and finish the washing; it is
but a trifle.”
The limbs of the laundress shook under her, and she said, “I have stood
too long in the cold water, and I have had nothing to eat the whole day since
the morning. O kind Heaven, help me to get home; I am in a burning fever.
Oh, my poor child,” and she burst into tears. And he, poor boy, wept also,
as he sat alone by the river, near to and watching the damp linen.
The two women walked very slowly. The laundress slipped and tottered
through the lane, and round the corner, into the street where the mayor
lived; and just as she reached the front of his house, she sank down upon the
pavement. Many persons came round her, and Lame Martha ran into the
house for help. The mayor and his guests came to the window.
“Oh, it is the laundress,” said he; “she has had a little drop too much. She
is good for nothing. It is a sad thing for her pretty little son. I like the boy
very well; but the mother is good for nothing.”
After a while the laundress recovered herself, and they led her to her poor
dwelling, and put her to bed. Kind Martha warmed a mug of beer for her,
with butter and sugar-she considered this the best medicine-and then
hastened to the river, washed and rinsed, badly enough, to be sure, but she
did her best. Then she drew the linen ashore, wet as it was, and laid it in a
basket. Before evening, she was sitting in the poor little room with the
laundress. The mayor’s cook had given her some roasted potatoes and a
beautiful piece of fat for the sick woman. Martha and the boy enjoyed these
good things very much; but the sick woman could only say that the smell
was very nourishing, she thought. By-and-by the boy was put to bed, in the
same bed as the one in which his mother lay; but he slept at her feet,
covered with an old quilt made of blue and white patchwork. The laundress
felt a little better by this time. The warm beer had strengthened her, and the
smell of the good food had been pleasant to her.
