All ranks are entirely at the mercy of their servants, as the following account of what occurred in an officer’s family will illustrate.
Colonel B. was celebrated for giving good dinners; and Mrs. B. used to smile at the different tales which she heard of the servants in the island.
She was in the habit of humouring the servants; and although they used occasionally to absent themselves for days, and the colonel and his lady, on returning from church on Sunday, have had to dine on cheese and bread, as the butler was quite drunk under the dining-room table, and the cook had fortified himself in the kitchen, threatening to run anyone through who dared to invade his dominions—still Mrs. Colonel B. said “that these ‘poor blacks,’ had gratitude; for whenever they had a dinner-party they never behaved badly.”
The colonel’s charming dinner-parties had an end, from the circumstances arising out of the keeping up of their wedding-day. A nice party of guests were invited, and everything went like a marriage feast, until shortly before dinner, when the colonel’s dress boots were not to be found anywhere. Better had he not troubled himself further about the said boots. The butler was sent for, and he said he knew nothing about the cause of the absence of the boots. Mrs. B. was appealed to, and she could give no information. And the colonel at last told the butler that he would make him pay for the missing boots.
Blackey immediately got saucy, and the colonel gave him a whipping. The guests were arriving, the colonel hurried to meet them, and the boots were forgotten.
Dinner was announced, and the party were ushered into the dining-room. Soup and fish were served—and there was a considerable pause. The room being left without a single attendant, Mrs. B. rose and retired to see what was the cause of the delay. Along the passages, in the verandah, and on the way to the kitchen, which was some distance from the house, she met with no one. On entering the kitchen she found that also deserted. She called, but no one answered.
Looking round for the dinner, she observed all the dishes standing on a table, placed there for the purpose of serving the dinner up, preparatory to taking it to the dining-room, and in the centre stood the colonel’s boots which had been missing that day. In each boot she found a roasted duck had been thrust, and over them the sweet sauce for pudding had been poured.
The turkey was there, but it was garnished with cinders, and, in short, a beautiful dinner was completely spoiled. At the sight of which poor Mrs. B. fainted away. The colonel, soon afterwards making his appearance, found his wife insensible, and his dinner ruined.
The above is a well-known story, and I could enumerate many more, but I fear the reader’s patience is already well nigh exhausted.