THE DAY'S WORK
It happened that just as Margaret was finishing her Saturday morning
lessons Bridget had to go away for a few days, and the last lesson of
all, which was given by her mother, was really a sort of review of what
she had learned, such as she had in her school lessons.
It was hardly more than six o'clock in the morning when the little girl
woke and jumped out of bed. She dressed softly so that she should not
wake any one, and took her bed to pieces and set her closet door open,
as she had learned in her Bedroom lesson. She threw up the windows and
hung up her night-dress, and then left the room, closing the door behind
her.
Her mother met her in the hall, and they went down-stairs together,
tying on their clean gingham aprons as they went. The house was all shut
up of course, so they opened the front doors, raised the shades in the
parlors, and opened the windows a little to change the air. In the
kitchen the fire was burning, shut up as they had left it the night
before, and they first closed it to shake it down, and then opened the
drafts and put on fresh coal, as Margaret had learned when she studied
about the range. While the fire was burning up she pinned a little shawl
about her head and swept off the front steps and sidewalk, and came in
all glowing from the cold air.
By this time the fire was hot and bright, and the cereal was put on to
cook in the double boiler, the kettle filled with fresh water and put on
to boil for coffee. Her mother said she would stay out in the kitchen
and make muffins for breakfast while the other rooms were put in order,
so Margaret went into the parlors and sitting-room and straightened the
chairs, put away books and papers, and dusting a little here and there,
leaving the regular dusting until later in the day. The windows were now
shut, and the rooms looked very tidy, so she went to the dining-room to
prepare that for breakfast.
She brushed up the crumbs, aired the room, and put it in order. She
arranged the doilies on the table, one under each plate, with a round of
felt under that, laid the silver, put on her mother's tray with the cups
and saucers, set the tumblers and napkins around, and the plates with
the finger-bowls and fruit-knives, and the bread and butter plates with
the spreaders. She filled the salts freshly, and last of all put on a
vase of flowers. Then she took the cereal dishes, platter, and plates
out to heat in the oven.
She found her mother was getting ready the eggs and other things for
breakfast, and she need not help, so she carried into the dining-room
the butter balls and put them around; filled the finger-bowls and
tumblers with cold water and the coffee-cups with hot; arranged the
fruit on the sideboard, and put cream into the pitcher on the tray as
well as in another pitcher for the cereal. By the time breakfast was
ready she had on her white apron and had washed her hands, and when the
family came down she was ready to show them all what a well-trained
waitress she was.
"Do sit down with us," her father begged. "You have done so much
already!" But Margaret felt a little proud that she knew her waiting
lesson so well, and said she would rather not. She really enjoyed moving
very quietly around the table, bringing in and taking out things,
passing everything to the left, and laying down plates at the right, and
generally remembering just what she had been taught.
After all had finished she ate her own breakfast, and found she had been
up so long and worked so much that it tasted twice as good as usual.
When she had finished she put on her gingham apron again and cleared the
table. She took up the crumbs carefully and used the carpet-sweeper all
over the rug. She scraped and piled the dishes in nice, neat piles, and,
drawing the hot water, she washed and wiped them all nicely, and put
them away. She swept the kitchen, wiped off the tables, shut up the
range and washed out the dish-towels exactly as her grandmother had
taught in the lesson she gave on the kitchen. Then she went up-stairs.
Her grandmother, mother, and aunts had been afraid she would get too
tired with such a long day's work as she had planned to do, and they had
made their own beds, but they left Margaret's room for her for fear she
would be disappointed. She closed the windows first, and while the room
warmed she made the bathroom neat, washed and wiped out the tub and
scrubbed off the wash-stand.
Her room was put in beautiful order, to her closet and shoe-bag, and she
even stopped to put a clean cover on the bureau and dust nicely, to show
she had not forgotten a single thing. The halls and parlors had to be
thoroughly dusted now, but as none of them needed sweeping it did not
take very long, and there was still time to go to market. She got out
her jacket and hat, took her pencil, account-book, and kitchen pad, and
went out to see what was in the refrigerator. Here she had to stop, for
Bridget had gone away in such a hurry she had quite forgotten to wash
this out and arrange it properly, so on went the gingham apron again,
and out came all the things from the box. She gave it a good scrubbing
with warm water and borax, and put in a fresh dish of charcoal before
she put back the ice and dishes of food. Then she got her pad again, and
with her mother's help, planned the meals and wrote down what she must
buy.
The walk to the grocery and meat market was pleasant, and Margaret quite
enjoyed ordering the vegetables, chops, fruit, and fish, which were
needed, and watched to see if she was getting fresh things and good
measure, and wrote down the prices as though she had been an old
housekeeper instead of a new one.
When she got back again she found there was an hour until lunch, and she
at once wiped off the shelves in the pantry and put fresh papers on them
and arranged the tins in a more orderly way than she found them. By the
time she had finished her Pretty Aunt came out to help get luncheon, and
together they laid the table and got the meal. She put on her
waiting-apron again, when it was ready, but this time she sat down with
the family because her mother said she must surely be tired.
Her grandmother insisted on helping with the dishes, and watched with
pride when afterwards Margaret poured boiling water down the sink after
laying a bit of washing-soda over the drain, and scrubbed off all her
tables until they shone, and blacked her range until it was like a
mirror. "You surely are going to make a wonderful housekeeper!" she
said.
Margaret laughed as she took off her apron. "But I just _love_ to do
things, grandmother," she replied, as she went up-stairs.
Bridget always found that she had an hour or two to rest in the
afternoon after her work was done, and so did the little girl, but after
she had taken a walk and read in a new book for a time, she suddenly
remembered that the silver needed cleaning, and she might surprise the
family at dinner with it all polished. She got it out and rubbed it
well, delighted to see how quickly it grew bright. As she finished her
mother came into the kitchen with her Other Aunt, and said they meant to
help get the dinner.
The mother looked around her. "Everything is very nice," she said. "The
sink is clean, and so is the pantry, and so are all the dishes. The
range is bright; the dish-towels are washed; the dining-room is in
order. I noticed as I came through the other rooms that the bedrooms,
bathroom, and parlors have all been looked after to-day, too. Margaret,
I do believe you are as good a housekeeper as I am already."
"Well," said the little girl, thoughtfully, "I didn't sweep any to-day,
nor wash any windows; I didn't shine the faucets in the bathroom,
either, because I forgot them till this minute. I didn't have time to
oil the floors in the hall this morning-- I only brushed it up; and I
haven't looked at the cellar or the attic at all."
Her mother laughed. "But nobody does the whole house from top to bottom
every single day," she said. "We sweep twice a week, only, and we wash
windows when they need washing, not all the time. The attic and cellar
are to be kept in order, but not put in order daily, you know. The
really good housekeeper does a little putting to rights all the time,
and every day she takes a certain part of the house and makes it clean,
but she never tries to do more in one day than belongs to that one. To
know how to keep a house nice is quite as necessary as to know how to
make it so. The most important thing of all is knowing what you have
learned to-day--to quietly go through the work, taking one thing after
another, each in its turn, and to do all well, without hurry or worry.
To be able to do this is to make housework pleasant."
"Well," said Margaret, earnestly, "I like to keep house. When I am a
woman I mean to have the nicest, cleanest house in all the world!"
"Suppose you help me keep this one nice till then!" said her mother.
THE END