where we had to go and fetch them as we wanted them.

"I wish you'd run into the garden," my aunt would say to me--I was
stopping with them at the time--"and see if you can find any sugar; I
think there's some under the big rose-bush. If not, you'd better go
to Jones' and order some."

And on the cook's inquiring what she should get ready for lunch, my
aunt would say:

"Well, I'm sure, Jane, I hardly know. What have we? Are there any
chops in the garden, or was it a bit of steak that I noticed on the
lawn?"

On the second afternoon the plumbers came to do a little job to the
kitchen boiler. The dog, being engaged at the time in the front of
the house, driving away the postman, did not notice their arrival. He
was broken-hearted at finding them there when he got downstairs, and
evidently blamed himself most bitterly. Still, there they were, all
owing to his carelessness, and the only thing to be done now was to
see that they did not escape.

There were three plumbers (it always takes three plumbers to do a job;
the first man comes on ahead to tell you that the second man will be
there soon, the second man comes to say that he can't stop, and the
third man follows to ask if the first man has been there); and that
faithful, dumb animal kept them pinned up in the kitchen--fancy
wanting to keep plumbers in a house longer than is absolutely
necessary!--for five hours, until my uncle came home; and the bill
ran: "Self and two men engaged six hours, repairing boiler-tap, 18s.;