"Awgh--awgh!" she burst out, catching up her apron and clutching it
round the cut. "Look what you've done, Miss Ruby! an' me miles away,
thinkin' o' shipwrecks an' dead swollen men."

"Look at the Chris'mas dinner, you mazed creature!"

In truth, the goose was fast spoiling. The roasting apparatus in this
kitchen was a simple matter, consisting of a nail driven into the centre
of the chimney-piece, a number of worsted threads depending therefrom,
and a steel hook attached to these threads. Fix the joint or fowl
firmly on the hook, give it a spin with the hand, and the worsted
threads wound, unwound, and wound again, turning it before the blaze--an
admirable jack, if only looked after. At present it hung motionless
over the dripping-pan, and the goose wore a suit of motley, exhibiting a
rich Vandyke brown to the fire, an unhealthy yellow to the window.

"There now!" Mary Jane rushed to the jack and gave it a spin, while Ruby
walked round by the back door, and appeared dripping on the threshold.
"I declare 'tis like Troy Town this morning: wrecks and rumours o'
wrecks. Now 'tis 'Ropes! ropes!' an' nex' 'tis 'Where be the stable
key, Mary Jane, my dear?' an' then agen, 'Will'ee be so good as to fetch
master's second-best spy-glass, Mary Jane, an' look slippy?'--an' me wi'
a goose to stuff, singe, an' roast, an' 'tatties to peel, an' greens to
cleanse, an' apples to chop for sauce, an' the hoarders no nearer away
than the granary loft, with a gatherin' 'pon your second toe an' the
half o' 'em rotten when you get there. The pore I be in! Why, Miss
Ruby, you'm streamin'-leakin'!"

"I'm wet through, Mary Jane; an' I don't care if I die." Ruby sank on
the settle, and fairly broke down.