Trials and Confessions of a HousekeeperArthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
General
Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper
Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Home economics -- Fiction; Housekeeping -- Fiction; Housewives -- Fiction
"Do you want a box?" asked the milliner, after I had decided to take
the bonnet.
"I have one," was my answer.
"O, very well. I will send the bonnet home in a box, and you can
take it out."
"That will do."
"Shall I send it home this morning?"
"If you please."
"Very well. I'll see that it is done."
After this I made a number of calls, which occupied me until after
one o'clock, when I turned my face homeward. On arriving, I was
admitted by my new girl, and, as the thought of my beautiful bonnet
now returned to my mind, my first words were:
"Has any thing been sent home for me, Anna?"
"Och! yis indade, mum," was her answer,--"lots o' things."
"Lots of things!" said I, with manifest surprise; for I only
remembered at the moment my direction to the milliner to send home
my bonnet.
"Yis, indade!" responded the girl. "Lots. And the mon brought 'em on
the funniest whale barry ye iver seed."
"On a wheel barrow!"
"Yis. And such a whale barry! It had a whale on each side, as I'm a
livin' sinner, mum and a cunnin' little whale in front, cocked 'way
up intil the air, thot didn't touch nothin' at all--at all! There's
no sich whale barrys as thot same in Ireland, me leddy!"
"And what did you do with the lots of things brought on this wheel
barrow?" said I, now beginning to comprehend the girl.
"Put them on y'r bed, sure."
"On my bed!" I exclaimed, in consternation.
"Sure, and didn't I remember the last words ye spake till me?
'Anna,' says ye,--'Anna, if ony thing is sent home for me, be sure
till take it carefully up stairs and lay it on me bed.' And I did
thot same. Sure, I couldn't have found a nicer place, if I gone the
house over."
Turning from the girl, I hurried up stairs.
It was as I had too good reason to fear. Such a sight as met my
eyes! In the centre of my bed, with its snowy-white Marseilles
covering, were piled "lots of things," and no mistake. Sugar, tea,
cheese, coffee, soap, and various other articles, not excepting a
bottle of olive oil, from the started cork of which was gently
oozing a slender stream, lay in a jumbled heap; while, on a satin
damask-covered chair, reposed a greasy ham. For a moment I stood
confounded. Then, giving the bell a violent jerk, I awaited, in
angry impatience, the appearance of Anna, who, in due time, after
going to the street door, found her way to my chamber.
"Anna!" I exclaimed, "what, in the name of goodness, possessed you
to do this?"
And I pointed to the bed.
"Sure, and ye towld me till put them on ye's bed."
"I told you no such thing, you stupid creature! I said if a bonnet
came, to put it on the bed."
"Och! sorry a word did ye iver say about a bonnet, mum. It's the
first time I iver heard ony thing about a bonnet from yer blessed
lips. And thot's thrue."
"Where is my bonnet, then? Did one come home?"
"Plase, mum, and there did. And a purty one it is, too, as iver my
two eyes looked upon."
"What did you do with it?" I enquired, with a good deal of concern.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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