The Yellow and White Agony. 357 



off an hour for dinner. It was very amusing, however, how much 

 more saving they would be with plates, &c., at meals, when they 

 knew they would have to wash up. " No gravy, thank you oh ! 

 thank you, this plate will do quite well for pudding," and so on. 



One thing puzzled us how to get the kitchen floor scrubbed. 

 It was daily getting blacker, and although the men declared that a 

 clean floor up country was an unnecessary luxury, and not at all in 

 place in a kitchen, I felt it was a blot on my household arrange- 

 ments. So I resolved to enlist the services of an old Indian 

 woman. She and her blind husband, both riding on the same 

 horse, came over from their Indian camp every morning, and, 

 tethering their cayuse to a tree, the blind man and his clootchman 

 would sit on our verandah for a couple of hours. He would 

 murmur "muck a muck" (food), and then " mamook wash," 

 mamook meaning to make or to do. So one morning I accosted 

 him with: "How much clootchman mamook wash?" He understood 

 quickly, and, after speaking in his native tongue to his wife, he said : 

 " Two dollars fifty, muck a muck (here two fingers were held up), 

 smoke." 2dols. 50 cents a day, two meals and tobacco, was a high 

 price for a scrub, but after a little bargaining we settled it for 2dols., 

 and the clootchman was taken into the kitchen and provided with 

 hot water, scrubbing brush, and soap. She seated herself on the 

 floor, and proceeded in a diffident manner to scrub a square foot 

 or so in front of her. Then she rested, took out a clay pipe, and 

 murmured : " Smoke, smoke." So that she might be assured of 

 our goodwill I produced tobacco, whereupon she shuffled out to 

 her brave, filled his pipe, and then returned to squat near the spot 

 she fondly believed she had cleaned, and smoked placidly. It was 

 hours before that little tiny bit of a kitchen was scrubbed, and 

 although perhaps the floor was a little cleaner, it was so filled 

 with the odour of smoke and Indian that the last state of the 

 room was worse than the first. I was glad to turn her out 

 with her money and her food, and a very emphatic " hyack 

 klatawa," which was the nearest I could get in Chinook to get out 

 quick. I refused the services of " mamook wash," as we nicknamed 



