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274 SKETCHES.
than ten years has served me with milk and cream twice a
week. During all this time she has come and gone, quietly,
neatly dressed, and honest, with a deep curtsey, a ‘good
morning!’ and ‘many thanks, without my ever thinking of
looking upon her otherwise than as an old regular piece of
clock-work, which strikes the hours at certain intervals of
time, or as one of those kind of people who live, they do
not know precisely why; who walk through life without
knowing wherefore; and who yet from morning till noon,
from noon until night, after all, manage better than those
who know infinitely more. Last week, during two milk-
days, for the first time she did not make her appearance.
I began to wonder whether my good old clock-work had
stopped for ever, and was just going to see what was the
matter with it, when this morning a boy about ten years
old called upon me, and with tears in his eyes besought me
to come and see his ‘dear Nanna,’ who was very ill. I
accompanied the boy across the street to the house where
my milk-woman lived, and was shown into a clean, but
poor-looking room, where I found my old acquaintance
lying on a straw pallet, and to all appearance in a bad state.
A well-dressed lady, between twenty and thirty years of
age, with pleasant, but extremely delicate features, was sit-
ting beside her, holding the old woman’s hand in hers. A
young girl was lying weeping upon her knees before her.
She seemed to be of nearly the same age as the boy, who
was her brother. I was a little astonished at what I saw,
but as I do not like superfluous questions, I merely inquired
into the old woman’s state of health. She had not much
strength herself to speak, but the lady tried, evidently with
deep emotion, to describe her malady. I prescribed some-
thing ; spoke, according to my habit, not many words, and
took, in going through the door, a pinch of snuff, much
doubting in my own mind the efficacy of the medicines in
a creature whom old age, poverty, and disease, were hurry-
ing to the grave. ‘And if; I thought to myself, ‘I should
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