It was built of granite and marble, and richly
furnished with every luxury that money can buy. There was an army of
servants about the house, and many of them had no other duties than to
wait upon Miss Muffet, for the little girl was an only child and
therefore a personage of great importance. She had a maid to dress her
hair and a maid to bathe her, a maid to serve her at a table and a
maid to tie her shoe-strings, and several maids beside And then there
was Nurse Holloweg to look after all the maids and see they did their
tasks properly.
The child's father spent his days at his office and his evenings at
his club; her mother was a leader in society, and therefore fully
engaged from morning till night and from night till morn; so that
Little Miss Muffet seldom saw her parents and scarce knew them when
she did see them.
I have never known by what name she was christened. Perhaps she did
not know herself, for everyone had called her "Miss Muffet" since she
could remember. The servants spoke of her respectfully as Miss Muffet.
Mrs. Muffet would say, at times, "By the way, Nurse, how is Miss
Muffet getting along?" And Mr. Muffet, when he met his little daughter
by chance on the walk or in the hallway, would stop and look at her
gravely and say, "So this is Miss Muffet. Well, how are you feeling,
little one?" And then, without heeding her answer, he would walk away.
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