Mrs. Pollard remarked: “I’ve heard my mother say, ‘He got a basting!’”
“An up-and-down turn to the hourglass does to a turn,” Patience observed dryly.
“I suppose she means,” said Mrs. Hutchings, “that two hours of basting or roasting would make us understand.”
“Would she be likely to know about hourglasses?” Mrs. Curran asked.
Patience answered the question.
“A dial beam on a sorry day would make a muck o’ basting.” Meaning that a sundial was of no use on a cloudy day.
But Patience is not usually as patient with lack of understanding as this bit of conversation would indicate.
“I dress and baste thy fowl,” she said once, “and thee wouldst have me eat for thee. If thou wouldst build the comb, then search thee for the honey.”
“Oh, we know we are stupid,” said one. “We admit it.”