"You will do just what I tell you! Go now and bring a bucket of coal!" She started, after looking me in the eye a few seconds to see whether she could succeed if she attempted to disobey. "When you come back I will talk with you about it." I must have prompt obedience. I saw that her condition, that of motherhood, required consideration. While she was gone Allen came to me and whispered,-- "They never lock up women like her, so she takes the advantage." After she had brought up the coal, and sat down upon the table again, I went along to her, laid my hand upon her shoulder, stooped down, and said softly,-- "I see the condition that you are in,--I know that it requires care,--I am a mother,--I will see that you do no more than your part. You will do as I wish in future, pleasantly, will you?" "Yes, ma'am!" I then called them all around me, and said to them,-- "The bringing up of the coal for the steam boiler is to be divided among you. I will give each her share of it to do as equally as I can. If any one of you thinks she is doing more than belongs to her, rightfully, make no talk about it, but come directly to me, and I will see that it is made right." My first object was to lead the women to make me the central, regulating power, in the kitchen, so that I could reduce the chaotic state of affairs to something like order. "In a week," I said to the Deputy that day, "I hope to get something like order established." "I will give you a month to get the run of things." "You want the meals well cooked, and promptly passed out at the time; the place kept quiet and clean." "That is what we want." "Be patient, and in a week or two we shall arrive at that." "I shall find no fault till I see occasion." That night, after the work was done, I called them all around me, and told them they would find me kind and pleasant, if they were obedient. If they were not, they would surely find themselves in trouble, because it was a part of my duty to make them obey, and it must be done by the rules of the institution; I could not change them. I saw that their work was hard; but I would make it as easy as possible. The work was there, and they were put there to do it. The more willingly they undertook it, the easier it would go off. If they tried to help themselves, I would help them. They all assented, and thus we made a compact to be kind to each other. IV. A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE. It was my third morning in prison. I stood beside the mush boiler with Annie O'Brien, who had been scraping it, and was wiping it out with a dry cloth. McMullins came along, and demanded the cloth from her. An altercation ensued. I hushed the noise, and asked,-- "To whom does the cloth belong?" "It is my dish-cloth," said McMullins. "You might let me have it a moment just to wipe this out!" "I want it meself, I'm in hurry for it." "Where is yours?" I asked O'Brien.