"Toast or rolls?"
"Which is your napkin-ring?"
"Did any one hear the rain last night?"
"You haven't said yet if you will have an egg."
"Mother is not well, and is not coming down this morning."
"Does any one mind if we go on with our machines?"
Over and above this, snatches of newspaper were read, and numerous directions were given to a very young servant as to how things should be placed upon the table—a proceeding which usually goes on at every one of the Jamiesons' meals. It is known as "training one of our village girls."
Gracie and Eliza were the two who sat at the side-table before their whirring sewing-machines, their very spectacles nearly darting from their heads with energy and speed. George said, "I wish one of you girls would mend my glove before I start;" and Gracie said, "Give it to me; I can spare five minutes off lunch-time to get this finished."
Margaret remarked, "Mamma seems very much out of spirits to-day, and I think one of us ought to go and play draughts with her."
Eliza took out her watch. "I can play draughts for thirty-five minutes," she remarked—"from eleven-five to eleven-forty—and then Gracie must take my place, as Margaret will be baking, and I have the soup-kitchen accounts to make up."