MAIDS AND MALLARDS 295 



Two of our house servants were more or less 

 permanent ; that is, they had been with us since 

 we opened the house, and were as content as 

 restless spirits can be. These were the house- 

 keeper and the cook, the hub of the house. 

 The former is a Norwegian, tall, angular, and 

 capable, with a knot of yellow hair at the back 

 of her head, ostensibly for sticking lead pencils 

 into, and a disposition to keep things snug and 

 clean. Her duties include the general supervi- 

 sion of both houses and the special charge of 

 store-rooms, food cellars, and table supplies of all 

 sorts. She is efficient, she whistles while she 

 works, and I see but little of her. I suspect that 

 Polly knows her well. 



The cook, Mary, is small, Irish, gray, with the 

 temper of a pepper-pod and the voice of a guinea- 

 hen suffering from bronchitis, but she can cook 

 like an angel. She is an artist, and I feel as if 

 the seven-dollar-a-week stipend were but a " tip " 

 to her, and that sometime she will present me 

 with a bill for her services. My safeguard, and 

 one that I cherish, is an angry word from her 

 to the housekeeper. She jeeringly asserted that 

 she, the cook, got $2 a week more than she, 

 the housekeeper, did. As every one knows that 

 the housekeeper has $5 a week, I am holding 

 this evidence against the time when Mary asks 

 for a lump sum adequate to her deserts. The 

 number of things which Mary can make out of 

 everything and out of nothing is wonderful ; and 



