Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work
" she asked.
"Absolutely. Think of it! I wakened one morning lying by the roadside,
and shivering with cold. I had on a simple gray dress, with no hat. The
sun was just rising, and no one was near. I examined myself with wonder,
for I had no idea who I was, or how I came there. There was no money in
my pocket, and I had no jewels. To keep warm I began walking along the
road. The scenery was all new to me; so far as I knew I had never been
in the place before.
"The birds were singing and the cows mooed in the meadow. I tried to
sing, too, for my heart was light and gay and I was happy. By and bye I
came to a town; but no one seemed to be awakened because it was yet so
early. As I walked down the street I saw smoke coming from one of the
chimneys, and it suddenly occurred to me that I was hungry. I entered
the yard and went around to the back door. A woman was working in the
kitchen and I laughed joyfully and wished her a good morning. She was
not very pleasant, but it did me good to talk with her; I liked to hear
my own voice and it pleased me to be able to talk easily and well. She
grudgingly gave me something to eat and then bade me begone, calling me
by some strange name and saying I was a thief. It was then that I
invented the name of Eliza Parsons. I don't know why, but it popped into
my head and I claimed it for my name and have clung to it ever since."
"Have you no idea what your real name is?" asked Louise, greatly
interested in this terse relation.
"I have no idea of anything that dates beyond that morning," replied
Eliza. "The first time I looked in the mirror I saw a strange face
reflected there. I had to make my own acquaintance," she added, with one
of her bright laughs. "I suppose I am between seventeen and twenty years
of age, but what my life was during past years is to me a sealed book. I
cannot remember a person I knew or associated with, yet things outside
of my personal life seem to have clung to me. I remembered books I must
have read; I can write, sing and sew--I sew remarkably well, and must
have once been trained to it.
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There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.
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