My Good Position in Service

     I am a maid. That is all I am. Perhaps the only place I will ever be is in service. I like being a maid. I’m suited for the strong work. It’s a good position. My master and mistress make up a respectable family, and they are kind, if distant, people. I wouldn’t want to lose my position… but what if I left?

     I wash; I clean; I make fires; I help in the kitchen. What other jobs can there be in the world? My sister left service for a factory two years ago, and I was ashamed she would abandon a good position at a good house. But her life sounds wonderful from what she writes – or better than mine, at least. For every 80 hours a week I do of back-breaking work, she performs but a mere 56 of the same factory work over and over. My sister speaks often of her worker friends. I’m quite lonely here. There’s Cook and there’s her ladyship’s lady maid and some footmen. But this is a lonely life. I don’t know if I have a true friend. But it’s a good position. No one should leave such a good post. Right?