Three generations

YOUNG MARY'S HOLIDAY 45
prescribed medically for their and her children in
simple forms of illness, like the chatelaine of the
Middle Ages. I remember seeing her in later years
overlooking a preparation of calico dipped in melted
beeswax, which she kept in stock to meet the many
applications for the relief of burns, for which the
medicated cloth was considered a sovereign remedy.
John Walker and his wife were poor in the early
years of their married life, and she was bent on add-
ing as little as she could to the family expenses. Her
domestic staff was limited when her first baby was a
child in arms. My grandmother lent her married and
favourite daughter the services of my mother, then
a bright, active girl of seventeen. She went for a long
visit to her sister, during which she was to make
herself generally useful.
It was a happy holiday for young Mary Gibb, since
life at Balass, though cheerful and diversified, was
decidedly strenuous, with a great deal to do and no-
body to be spared. These conditions were more
marked as time wore on and cares and troubles
increased. Blebo Mills was a haven of quiet rest by
comparison.
The duties which devolved on the visitor were light
and agreeable. She was required to relieve the
baby's nurse and set her free for other tasks. It was
summer and fine weather. What nursery could be
equal to an open-air nursery for a healthy little child ?
Thus the pair had but to cross a white - painted
wooden bridge, which spanned the mill-stream, to
find themselves in a sylvan solitude. At the same
time, the child's keeper was within sight of the
windows of the house, so that she could summon
aid or be reached at a moment's notice. My uncle