A woman who came in a few days before, on a long sentence, had been discovered to be a nice needle-woman, smart and pretty; whereas Flannagan was plain and slow. Occasion was thus made to effect the change, so my women said. And what they failed to find out in that institution was beyond investigation. XV. A DAY OF ODDS AND ENDS. The day commenced at odds. In the morning Mrs. Hardhack came flying into the kitchen, and demanded, from O'Brien, something for one of her girls to eat. "She has fainted away for the want of food! She has had no breakfast! How did you dare to keep her breakfast from her!" O'Brien kept her temper wonderfully. She answered very quietly,-- "I'm sure she had the same as the rest if she had been a mind to taken it." "How do you dare to stand there and answer me in that way? I'll have you punished if you dare to open your mouth again." O'Brien's face grew red, she opened her lips to retort just as I arrived to where they stood. I stepped between them. "O'Brien, will you get a bucket of coal? I want more steam as soon as I can have it." "Yes, ma'am," and she started away; but she looked up at me as she went as much to say, you have saved me. I turned to Mrs. Hardhack. "I'm sorry one of your girls couldn't eat her breakfast; you know it is impossible for me to get anything aside from the Master's orders, and what the rest have. I'll see if I can find her something." "We have got so much contract work to get done to-night, and, if the women faint away, they can't do it." "I should be glad to provide them a good, substantial breakfast to work on; but I can't have my way about it. It is very cruel to feed them as they are fed here; and then, to work them as they are worked." I thought, as I went to look up something for her to take to the poor girl, of the remark John Randolph made to his lady neighbor, when he entered her house and found her at work for the Greeks, "The Greeks are at your door." He had entered the house through a little army of naked, ignorant servants. Do not the ladies of the United States need to be reminded that the Greeks are at their door? Are they not in every prison in the land? I went into the pantry. There was a skillet pan standing on the shelf with a bone in it. I took it out and inquired,-- "Whose bone is this?" "It is mine," said Lissett. "Will you give it to the woman in the shop who fainted this morning because she had no breakfast?" "Yes, ma'am!" "Bring a slice of bread, and quart of coffee to go with it." Handing it to Mrs. Hardhack, I dispatched her as quickly as possible. I was glad when she departed. Her visits to the kitchen were very disagreeable. She always managed to use the "irritating language," forbidden by the Board in their "Rules and Regulations," which stirred up the angry feelings of my women, and it took time and argument to get them settled down into calmness and quiet again.