Christian life -- Fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
"Slept warm, did you?" said Miss Fortune, as she set the pan
back on the fire. And Ellen could hardly answer. "Quite warm,
Maam," when the hissing and sputtering began again, as loud
as ever.
"I must wait," thought Ellen, "till this is over, before I say
what I want to. I can't scream out to ask for a basin and
towel."
In a few minutes the pan was removed from the fire, and Miss
Fortune went on to take out the brown slices of nicely-fried
pork and arrange them in a deep dish, leaving a small quantity
of clear fat in the pan. Ellen, who was greatly interested,
and observing every step most attentively, settled in her own
mind that certainly this would be thrown away, being fit for
nothing but the pigs. But Miss Fortune didn't think so, for
she darted into some pantry close by, and returning with a cup
of cream in her hand, emptied it all into the pork fat. Then
she ran into the pantry again for a little round tin box, with
a cover full of holes, and shaking this gently over the pan, a
fine white shower of flour fell upon the cream. The pan was
then replaced on the fire and stirred; and, to Ellen's
astonishment, the whole changed, as if by magic, to a thick,
stiff, white froth. It was not till Miss Fortune was carefully
pouring this over the fried slices in the dish, that Ellen
suddenly recollected that breakfast was ready, and she was
not.
"Aunt Fortune," she said, timidly, "I haven't washed yet
there's no basin in my room."
Miss Fortune made no answer, nor gave any sign of hearing; she
went on dishing up breakfast. Ellen waited a few minutes.
"Will you please, Maam, to show me where I can wash myself."
"Yes," said Miss Fortune, suddenly standing erect, "you'll
have to go down to the spout."
"The spout, Maam," said Ellen, "what's that?"
"You'll know it when you see it, I guess," answered her aunt,
again stooping over her preparations. But in another moment
she arose and said, "Just open that door there behind you, and
go down the stairs and out at the door, and you'll see where
it is, and what it is too."
Ellen still lingered. "Would you be so good as to give me a
towel, Maam," she said, timidly.
Miss Fortune dashed past her and out of another door, whence
she presently returned with a clean towel, which she threw
over Ellen's arm, and then went back to her work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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