III. The New Kitchen
When the men had finished their work the kitchen was so changed that it scarcely knew itself, as Wallace said.
Instead of dim walls and dull-gray paint, everything was white and blue. A shining white sink with two bright nickel spigots was standing proudly in one corner of the room.
Mrs. Duwell had just finished hanging a white dotted muslin curtain at the window over the sink when Ruth entered.
“Oh, mother, doesn’t that look lovely!” she exclaimed.
“I thought such a bright clean kitchen deserved a clean new curtain,” said her mother.
“Isn’t the kitchen beautiful!” Ruth went on. “It seems like living in a fairy tale—as though we had wakened up to find things changed by magic.”
“It does, in a way,” agreed her mother; “but, really, they were every-day fairies who brought about these changes and turned ugliness into beauty.”
“I think I know their names,” Ruth said, laughing; “Mr. Plumber, Mr. Plasterer, and Mr. Painter.”
“Why, how did you guess?” said her mother.