bringing, however, only one servant. Owing to some confusion in the
drayman's arrangements, the cook had been left behind, and "Meary,"
the new arrival, professed her willingness to supply her place; but
on trial being made of her abilities, she proved to be quite as
inexperienced as I was; and to each dish I proposed she should
attempt, the unvarying answer was, "The missis did all that where I
come from." During the first few days after her arrival her chief
employment was examining the various knick-knacks about the
drawing-room; in her own department she was greatly taken with the
little cottage mangle. She mangled her own apron about twenty times
a day, and after each attempt I found her contemplating it with her
head on one side, and saying to herself, "'Deed, thin, it's as
smooth as smooth; how iver does it do it?" A few days later the
cook arrived. She is not all I could wish, being also Irish, and
having the most extraordinary notions of the use, or rather the
abuse, of the various kitchen implements: for instance, she will
poke the fire with the toasting fork, and disregards my gentle hints
about the poker; but at all events she can both roast mutton and
bake bread. "Meary" has been induced to wash her face and braid up
her beautiful hair, and now shines forth as a very pretty
good-humoured girl. She is as clever and quick as possible, and
will in time be a capital housemaid. She has taken it into her head
that she would like to be a "first-rater," as she calls it, and
works desperately hard in the prosecution of her new fancy.

I have never told you of the Sunday services we established here
from the first week of our arrival. There is no church nearer than
those in Christchurch, nor--I may mention parenthetically--is there
a doctor within the same distance. As soon as our chairs and tables
were in their proper places, we invited our shepherds and those