"Well, mem, you see Moffatt says he's got his window frames in now,
and he'll glass them the very first chance, and I think it'll be
more company for me on Saddler's Flat. So if you'll please to send
me down in the dray, I should be obliged."

Here was a pretty upset, and I went about my poultry-feeding with a
heavy heart. How was I to get fresh servants, and above all, what
was I to do for cooking during the week they were away? These
questions fortunately settled themselves in rather an unexpected
manner. I heard of a very nice willing girl who was particularly
anxious to come up as housemaid, to my part of the world, on
condition that I should also engage as cook her sister, who was
leaving a place on the opposite side of a range of high hills to the
south. I shall only briefly say that all inquiries about these
damsels proved satisfactory, and I could see Euphemia and Lois
depart, with tolerable equanimity. The former wept, and begged for
a box of Cockles' pills; but Lois tossed her elfish head, and gave
me to understand that she had never been properly admired or
appreciated whilst in my service.



Chapter XII: Culinary troubles.


I want to lodge a formal complaint against all cookery books. They
are not the least use in the world, until you know how to cook! and
then you can do without them. Somebody ought to write a cookery
book which would tell an unhappy beginner whether the water in which
she proposes to put her potatoes is to be hot or cold; how long such