"He'd sauce her back again; and then, both of 'em would get locked up. Wouldn't you like to see 'em both locked up?" said Lissett.
"Yes, that I should!" was echoed all around.
"I'd like to cut the bread for 'em," said O'Brien. "The slices would be thin."
"I would draw small quarts of water," said Lissett.
"Hush, girls! Don't you know that you are now indulging in the very temper that looks so hateful to you when you see it in others."
Scarcely was I relieved of Mrs. Hardhack's anti-benign influence, when the Receiving Matron made her appearance, and asked, although in a very different manner,—
"Why didn't the women bring over their clothes?"
"What clothes?"
"Their sheets to be washed. This is their day. They take them from their beds when they get up, and carry them to the wash-house as they go down to the shop. My women, and the four who were sent up from the shop to help them, have lost an hour by the delay. I don't mind about mine; but the shop women will be late back; and then, I shall be complained of that I did not drive them hard enough, and get the work out of them sooner."
"I didn't know anything about it. If you had told me last night I would have attended to it. Some of the women asked me if they should take out their sheets; but I didn't know what they meant, and told them I would see. I will send the sweeps to gather them up immediately, and send them over."