Page:Live and Let Live.djvu/199

Rh "I trust you will spoil nothing. Our every-day dinner is a simple affair—to-day boiled fowls, a tongue, a beefsteak, potatoes, turnips, and a rice pudding. My daughter Ella will give you all necessary assistance and directions; observe them to-day, and remember them to-morrow, Martha." Martha promised to do her best, and performed her promise, but her best had many imperfections. She was careless, prodigal, and talkative, but she had the sterling qualities of truth, honesty, capacity, and attachableness; and, after a thorough trial of the patience of her instructor and of the consumers of her productions, and after much discouragement, some tears and a little fretting on her part, she acquired the art of cooking skilfully, neatly, and frugally, and felt that she had gained knowledge which would be wealth to her. We give her own view of the case in one of her gossipings with Lucy some months after. "I declare, Lucy, I would not, if the silver money were offered to me, take a thousand dollars for what I have learned since I came to this house. At first I could not feel reconciled to chopping and changing works; but when I came to realize it was for our advantage, I felt different, for it would be a sight easier for Mrs. Hyde to let us go round and round in the mill just as we were used to. It's so seldom ladies think of anything but their own profit, that it makes us kind o' jealous. When I came here I did not know how to do anything well but chamber-work, and now I would not turn my back upon the king for any kind of plain cooking, or making broths and gruels, and such things for sick folks, or any kind of housework, and sewing, patching, and darning into the bargain."