Mrs. Hardy was less loud in her commendation of everything, but she
was greatly pleased with her new home, which was very much more
finished and comfortable than she had expected.
"This is fun, mamma, isn't it?" Maud said. "It is just like a
picnic. How we shall enjoy it, to be sure! May we set-to at once
after breakfast, and wash up?"
"Certainly, Maud; Sarah will not be here for another two hours, and
it is as well that you should begin to make yourselves useful at
once. We shall all have to be upon our mettle, too. See how nicely
the boys have cooked the breakfast. These snatch-cock ducks are
excellent, and the mutton chops done to a turn. They will have a
great laugh at us, if we, the professed cooks, do not do at least
as well."
"Ah, but look at the practice they have been having, mamma."
"Yes, Maud," Hubert said; "and I can tell you it is only two or
three things we can do well. Ducks and geese done like this, and
chops and steaks, are about the limits. If we tried anything else,
we made an awful mess of it: as to puddings, we never attempted
them; and shall be very glad of something in the way of bread, for
we are heartily sick of these flat, flabby cakes."
"Why have you only whitewashed this high middle wall halfway up,
Frank?"
"In the first place, my dear, we fell short of whitewash; and, in
the next place, we are going to set to work at once to put a few light
rafters across, and to nail felt below them, and whitewash it
so as to make a ceiling.
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