"Very well, then," said Mrs. Noah, "you can do it. I'll appoint you
engineer, and give you all your orders now, right away, in advance. Set
her going and keep her going, and don't stop without a written order
signed by me. We might as well be very careful, and have everything done
properly, and it might happen that in the excitement of our trip you would
misunderstand my spoken orders and make a fatal error. Therefore, pay no
attention to unwritten orders. That will do for you for the present.
Xanthippe, you may take Ophelia and Madame Récamier, and ten other ladies,
and, every morning before breakfast, swab the larboard deck. Cassandra,
Tuesdays you will devote to polishing the brasses in the dining-room, and
the balance of your time I wish you to expend in dusting the bric-a-brac.
Dido, you always were strong at building fires. I'll make you chief
stoker. You will also assist Lucretia Borgia in the kitchen. Inasmuch as
the latter's maid has neglected to supply her with the usual line of
poisons, I think we can safely entrust to Lucretia's hands the
responsibilities of the culinary department."

"I'm perfectly willing to do anything I can," said Lucretia, "but I must
confess that I don't approve of your methods of commanding a ship. A
ship's captain isn't a domestic martinet, as you are setting out to be. We
didn't appoint you housekeeper."

"Now, my child," said Mrs. Noah, firmly, "I do not wish any words. If I
hear any more impudence from you, I'll put you ashore without a reference;
and the rest of you I would warn in all kindness that I will not tolerate
insubordination. You may, all of you, have one night of the week and
alternate Sundays off, but your work must be done. The regimen I am
adopting is precisely that in vogue on the Ark, only I didn't have the
help I have now, and things got into very bad shape. We were out forty
days, and, while the food was poor and the service execrable, we never