"Not half as much as dusting. I really do hate that, it is so fussy, and, do you know," dropping her voice, "I heard Miss Julia the other day saying that she didn't like dusting either." In spite of any dislike that she may have had for the work, Maggie was a willing worker, and soon she had the long room in perfect order. Soon after breakfast, passing through the back hall, they came upon an array of lamps ranged on a long table. "Where's Concetta?" "I don't know. She was here a little while ago." "Well, I've looked all over the house, and I haven't seen her for an hour." "It's her day to do the lamps. She'll get a scolding if she doesn't fill them." "Who'll scold her? I never heard any one in this house scold." "Well, Miss Dreen, for one, is very particular, and she said that she'd punish the next girl who neglected the lamps." "Oh, well," said Maggie, "perhaps she won't be back in time to do them,--that is, if she has gone off anywhere." "She hasn't any right to go off in the morning." "I don't mind doing the lamps," said Maggie,--"that is, I'm not so very fond of doing them, but I'd just as lieves, and it will save Concetta a scolding. I don't mind a bit." So Maggie set to work with a will. She filled the lamps, trimmed one or two wicks, put in one or two new ones, washed and polished the chimneys, and when they were finished set them on a large tray to be ready for evening. "Well, that's more than I would do," said Haleema. "I wonder how these lamps get used," said Maggie; "except in the library they mostly use gas--the young ladies, I mean--and, of course, we only have gas in our room." "Why, that's so," said Haleema, "though I never thought of it before." But neither of the girls put her mind sufficiently on the subject to see that the care of the lamps was one of the devices of the two head workers at the Mansion for getting a certain kind of exact service from the young girls. The lamps were not needed. Often two of them were set in a little-used room where they burned just long enough to sear the wicks and cloud the shades, so that the young housekeepers could show their skill in cleaning them. Miss South made it her duty usually to keep in mind the girl whose task for the week it was to attend to the lamps, and when the results were thoroughly satisfactory she was loud in her praise, just as she felt it her duty to blame when the reverse was true. From the lamps the two little girls went to the bathroom. "Oh, you oughtn't to dust without lifting down those bottles. Miss Dreen says that we ought never to leave a corner untouched." "But I've dusted in between; it doesn't matter what there is under the bottles." But Haleema was not to be rebuffed.