"Lord, what a job!" said one sister; "she's just like so much lead in
one's arms. But if we listened to them we should have them loafing here
over a month more." Esther did not require much assistance, and the sister
said, "Oh, you are as strong as they make 'em; you might have gone two
days ago."
"You're no better than brutes," Esther muttered. Then, turning to the
matron, she said, "You promised to get me a situation as wet-nurse."
"Yes, so I did, but the lady who I intended to recommend you to wrote this
morning to say that she had suited herself."
"But do you think you could get me a situation as wet-nurse?" said the
other woman; "it would save me from going to the workhouse."
"I really don't know what to do with you all; you all want to stop in the
hospital at least a month, eating and drinking the best of everything, and
then you want situations as wet-nurses at a pound a week."
"But," said Esther, indignantly, "I never should have given my sister two
pounds if you had not told me you could get me the situation."
"I'm sorry," said the matron, "to have to send you away. I should like to
have kept you, but really there is no help for it. As for the situation,
I'll do the best I can. It is true that place I intended for you is filled
up, but there will be another shortly, and you shall have the first.
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