CHAPTER XIV. — I DO NO GOOD IN THE HOUSE OF GLEYS.
Very early next morning I awoke, and hearing no sound in the loft above (whither, since my coming, Joan had carried her bed), concluded her to be still asleep. But in this I was mistaken: for going to the well at the back to wash, I found her there, studying her face in the mirror.
“Luckily met, Jack,” she said, when I was cleansed and freshly glowing: “Now fill another bucket and sarve me the same.”
“Cannot you wash yourself?” I ask’d, as I did so.
“Lost the knack, I reckon. Stand thee so, an’ slush the water over me.”
“But your clothes!” I cried out, “they’ll be soaking wet!”
“Clothes won’t be worse for a wash, neither. So slush away.”
Therefore, standing at three paces’ distance, I sent a bucketful over her, and then another and another. Six times I filled and emptied the bucket in all: and at the end she was satisfied, and went, dripping, back to the kitchen to get me my breakfast.
“Art early abroad,” she said, as we sat together over the meal.