“You don’t object to washing dishes I hope. The lunch and breakfast dishes will have to be cleared away before you can do much. Here’s the menu for tonight, I’ve written it out so there won’t be any mistake. I never like to have to give directions twice. Fruit cup. You’ll find the things in the store room, oranges, grape fruit, some white grapes skinned and seeded, I like plenty of grapes in it, and there’s a can of pineapple. Then we’ll have a clear soup. Do you know how to make soup? I’m sure I don’t know what you’ll make it out of. You can look around and see. Perhaps there’s some stock. Then for the meat course we’ll have chops and creamed potatoes and peas. There’s lettuce in the garden, and tomatoes in the refrigerator. You make mayonnaise, do you? Mrs. Bryant spoke of that I think. Well, that fixes the salad all right. Then ice cream and cake and coffee. I’ve ordered the ice cream, of course, but I’ll need two kinds of cake. I always like to have two kinds. That’s all, I believe. Now, I’m going up to lie down. I really must or I’ll look like a rag, but I shall expect you to have the diningroom and kitchen cleaned, the peas shelled, and the mayonnaise on the ice by the time I come down. Then I shall feel easy. You’ll need to scald and skin the tomatoes too, and get at your cake as soon as possible. It’ll need to get cold before icing. Now, do you think you understand it all?”
Joyce looked at her with frank amusement as she rolled out the sentences, tolling off the tasks as if they were trifles and expecting, actually expecting all that work to be done. In spite of her a fresh young laugh rang out as if it were all a joke. The lady eyed her curiously, uneasily. What kind of a young working person was this anyway that laughed at her tasks and came to the front door for admission?
“I want dinner promptly at seven,” she said haughtily. “Do you feel sure you will remember all I have told you?”
“I’ll do my best to accomplish as much as possible, Mrs. Powers,” said Joyce, remembering the ten dollars and sobering down. “There isn’t any too much time, I guess.”
Joyce undid her bundle and enveloped herself in her clean gingham apron as she spoke:
“Now, if you’ll show me where to find your materials.”
“Yes,” sighed the lady comfortably, leading the way to the kitchen. “I hope you’ll let me know right away if there’s anything else you need, because I hate to be disturbed when I’m taking a nap.”
She trailed away from the scene before Joyce realized the whole situation, or it is doubtful if she might not have fled even yet.
The kitchen was stacked with soiled dishes in every available spot, and soiled dish towels, grocery bags huddled together between piles of plates and pans and potato peelings. It was evident that not only the breakfast and lunch dishes were unwashed but also the dinner dishes of the night before, and possibly some from lunch of the day before. It was a wreck of a kitchen and no mistake. Joyce stood still in her pretty new blue dress in the midst of it all, appalled at what was expected of her. It seemed to her that no two girls could accomplish all that had been given her to do before seven o’clock. The cooking alone was enough to keep her on the jump, without all the cleaning. She was minded to get at the preparations for dinner first and leave the clearing up to take care of itself when the lady came down again, only that absolutely nothing could be done until there was a clean place in which to work.
Joyce had been in hard places before, with a meal ahead to get for company in a short time, and had rather enjoyed the sharpening of her wits to win the game and get it done in time. But never had she had such a kitchen as this to deal with. At first glance her soul revolted from having to touch it. The floor was grimy and messy with things spilled on it. Numerous dishes standing under the sink out of the way with fragments of food burned hard to them showed discouraging impossibilities ahead. The sink was filthy with grease and the dish-pan filled with greasy water. It was all simply unspeakable. She scarcely knew where to begin.