It was odd, queer strange work, as the women called it, and they didn't want to do anything of the kind.

Katy proposed that they should employ a man; and when they finally found one, he was a stupid fellow, and they much preferred to do the work themselves, to seeing him daub the house all over with the candy, and leave it half done.
They persevered, however, in their efforts to find a person, and after trying half a dozen, who could not or would not do the work, they gave it up in despair.

But not long were they permitted to struggle with the severe toil which their circumstances imposed upon them; for on the night before Christmas, when a large demand for candy was anticipated, and both of them had worked very hard, Mrs.Redburn fainted and fell upon the floor.

It was in this manner that she had been taken at the commencement of her former long sickness, and to Katy the future looked dark and gloomy.

But she did not give up.