CHAPTER XLVIII 
MAIDS AND MALLARDS 
WE have so rarely entered our house with 
the reader that he knows little of its domestic 
machinery. So much depends upon this machin- 
ery that one must always take it into considera- 
tion when reckoning the pleasures and even the 
comforts of life anywhere, and this is especially 
true in the country. We have such a lot of 
people about that our servants cannot sing the 
song of lonesomeness that makes dolor for most 
suburbanites. They are “churched” as often as 
they wish, and we pay city wages; but still it is 
not all clear sailing in this quarter of Polly’s 
realm. I fancy that we get on better than some 
of our neighbors; but we do not brag, and I 
usually feel that I am smoking my pipe ina 
powder magazine. There is something essentially 
wrong in the working-girl world, and I am glad 
that I was not born to set it right. We cannot 
down the spirit of unrest and improvidence that 
holds possession of cooks and waitresses, and we 
needs must suffer it with such patience as we 
can. 
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