and maids, to discuss and readjust the servants' rights and the
mistresses' wrongs--or is it the other way about? Anyhow, I shall
attend that conference. I shall bribe, plead, consent to any
arrangement if I can but net a cook-general. Ten months of doing
my own washing-up has brought me to my knees, while Harry says the
performance of menial duties has crushed his spirit.

Of course, Harry does make such a fuss of things. You might think, to
hear him talk, that the getting up of coal, lighting fires, chopping
wood and cleaning flues was the entire work of a household, instead
of being mere incidents in the daily routine. If he had to tackle _my_
duties--but men never seem to understand how much there is to do in a
house.

I will tell you about the conference when I write again.

Yours always, DODO.


_Puddleford_.

DEAR MOIRA,--The conference was a most interesting affair; the one
going on in Paris could never be half so thrilling. There was a goodly
attendance of servants, and they had their own spokeswoman. We spoke
for ourselves--those of us who were not too dazed at the sight of so
many "treasures" almost within our grasp.

What the servants wanted was not unreasonable. They chiefly demanded a
certain time to themselves during the day, with fixed hours for meals,
evening free, etc.