It's Saturday." "Saturday! Don't she know that the water will freeze almost as soon as it touches the ground?
Go and tell her to come in this minute, and not throw another drop on the pavement." Nancy withdrew, and I kept on speaking to myself-- "I never saw such creatures.

No consideration in them! Washing the pavement on a morning like this! Little do they care who falls on the ice; or who has a broken arm, or a broken leg." Just as I had said this, I heard a crash, and an exclamation without, and hurrying to the window looked forth.

Biddy's work was done, and well done, for the pavement was one sheet of ice, as hard and smooth as glass, and as slippery as oil.

Prostrate thereon was a grocer's boy, and just beyond the curb stone, in the gutter, lay the fragments of a jug of molasses.
Stepping back quickly to where the bell rope hung against the wall, I gave it a most determined jerk.

Scarcely had I done this, ere the door of the adjoining room, which was used as a nursery, opened, and Biddy appeared therein.
"Why, Biddy!" I exclaimed, "what possessed you to throw water on the pavement this morning ?" "Faix! And how was I to get it clane, mim, widout wather ?" coolly returned Biddy.
"Clean!" "Yes, mim, clane." "There was no crying necessity to have it clean to-day.