"Of course I am going to wait on the table," cried Dum, "and when I drop in my tracks, the other girls can go on with the good work."
"Well, well, what good girls you are! I have been told that the girls of the present time are worthless and I am always reading of their being so inferior to their mothers, but I believe I must have been misinformed."
"I hope you have been," laughed Dum. "My private opinion is that we are just about the same,—some good and some not so good; some bad and some not so bad. Anyhow, I am sure that there is not a girl on this party who would not be proud to help you, or boy, either, for that matter."
"We shall have to call the boys to our aid, too, I am afraid," said Miss Maria, glancing ruefully at the wood-box. "The wood is low and we can't cook without wood, eh, Page?"
"Won't I love to see them go to work," and Dum danced up and down the kitchen waving a dish-cloth.
The quiet mansion was astir now. The rising bell had routed the sleepy heads out of their beds, and from the boys' wing came shouts of the guests who were playing practical jokes on one another or merely making a noise from the joy of living. Dee and Mary found us in the kitchen and roundly berated us for not calling them in time to help. Dee reported that Jessie Wilcox was still in the throes of dressing.
"One of you might go pull some radishes and wash them and peel them," suggested Miss Maria.
Dee was off like a flash and came back with some parsley, too, to dress the dishes.
"Mary, get the ice and see to the water," was the next command from our general. "I must go now and put on something besides this old wrapper," and our aristocratic hostess sailed to the house, her lawn wings spread.
Our next visitor was General Price himself, very courtly and very apologetic and very admiring. He had just learned of the defection of the servants when he called for his boots and they were not forthcoming. Jasper had blacked his boots and brought them to his door every morning for half a century, but no Jasper appeared on that morning. The boots remained unblacked.