The one who tended the women's slide had one half of the floor to scrub, and the Master's furnace, which stood in the centre of the kitchen, to tend. There were many things to be done in common, where all helped; like the carrying out of the swill, which was emptied into tubs when the ration pans came in to be washed. That was carried a long way down the yard, poured into barrels, and left for the yard man to take to the piggery. They all helped to bring up the potatoes, four barrels at a time, wash them in the sink with a large bat-stick, and then put them in the boiler to be cooked by steam. To make the confusion more confounded, the work was changed round, and new hands put to it, the day I went there. The bringing up of the coal, for the steam boiler, which had heretofore devolved upon the steam woman, was now required of all the rest, to be divided among them, because the steam woman had had a broken wrist, and it was not quite strong again. That gave dissatisfaction, and created grumbling, and the constant contention of shifting the labor from one to the other. The rest were constantly fretting Allen, the steam woman, because she asked it of them. To settle the difficulty I asked the Deputy, when he came round,--"who should bring up the coal for Allen?" "Any of them that you see fit to order." That was an excellent hint to me. Allen had been in the habit of giving her own orders, which made it necessary for me to interfere continually so as to get them executed, and also to keep peace. They invariably answered her back with refusal when she asked for coal, and made altercation over every bucket that was needed. All orders, like information, were given promiscuously. I at once gave direction that all orders were to be given through me. "Allen, when you wish for coal, come to me for it!" Orders had no authority when given by one to another; and by watching I discovered that Allen was disposed to retaliate the little peckings she received, by making the one that aggravated her most bring up the most coal. It was more than one day's work to bring them to this arrangement. So I made it another rule that when they differed they were never to answer back; but come to me to settle the trouble. That was rather more difficult to establish than the first, they were so hot-headed, and anxious to defend themselves. O'Sullivan, one of the slide women, undertook to try my authority on the first order which I gave for coal. She sat idly upon her table, and I asked her to bring it up. A scowl came over her face, she hesitated, and then answered,-- "She's just as well able to bring up the coal as I." "That's so! that's so!" came from three or four other voices. "Stop! every one! It is the order that Allen is not to bring up coal; you have nothing to say about it." The others were silenced. "O'Sullivan, will you bring up a bucket of coal?" "I'm not going to bring up her coal; she's as well able to fetch it up as I."