Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper | Page 7

my house; and, at the close of the week, removed to another home.
CHAPTER III.
LIGHT ON THE SUBJECT.

"THE oil's out, mum," said Hannah, the domestic who succeeded Kitty, pushing her head into the room where I sat sewing.
"It can't be," I replied.
"Indade, mum, and it is. There isn't the full of a lamp left," was the positive answer.
"Then, what have you done with it?" said I, in a firm voice. "It isn't four days since a gallon was sent home from the store."
"Four days! It's more nor a week, mum!"
"Don't tell me that, Hannah," I replied, firmly; "for I know better. I was out on last Monday, and told Brown to send us home a gallon."
"Sure, and it's burned, mum, thin! What else could go with it?"
"It never was burned in our lamps," said I, in answer to this. "You've either wasted it, or given it away."
At this Hannah, as in honor bound, became highly indignant, and indulged in certain impertinences which I did not feel inclined to notice.
But, as the oil was all gone, and no mistake; and, as the prospect of sitting in darkness was not, by any means, an agreeable one--the only remedy was to order another gallon.
Something was wrong; that was clear. The oil had never been burned.
That evening, myself and husband talked over the matter, and both of us came to the conclusion, that it would never do. The evil must be remedied. A gallon of oil must not again disappear in four days.
"Why," said my husband, "it ought to last us at least a week and a half."
"Not quite so long," I replied. "We burn a gallon a week."
"Not fairly, I'm inclined to think. But four days is out of all conscience."
I readily assented to this, adding some trite remark about the unconscionable wastefulness of domestics.
On the next morning, as my husband arose from bed, he shivered in the chilly air, saying, as he did so:
"That girl's let the fire go out again in the heater! Isn't it too bad? This thing happens now every little while. I'm sure I've said enough to her about it. There's nothing wanted but a little attention."
"It is too bad, indeed," I added.
"There's that fishy smell again!" exclaimed Mr. Smith. "What can it be?"
"Fishy smell! So there is."
"Did you get any mackerel from the store yesterday?"
"None."
"Perhaps Hannah ordered some?"
"No. I had a ham sent home, and told her to have a slice of that broiled for breakfast."
"I don't know what to make of it. Every now and then that same smell comes up through the register--particularly in the morning. I'll bet a sixpence there's some old fish tub in the cellar of which she's made kindling."
"That may be it," said I.
And, for want of a better reason, we agreed, for the time being, upon that hypothesis.
At the end of another four days, word came up that our best sperm oil, for which we paid a dollar and forty cents a gallon, was out again.
"Impossible!" I ejaculated.
"But it is mum," said Hannah. "There's not a scrimption left--not so much as the full of a thimble."
"You must be mistaken. A gallon of oil has never been burned in this house in four days."
"We burned the other gallon in four days," said Hannah, with provoking coolness. "The evenings are very long, and we have a great many lights. There's the parlor light, and the passage light, and the--"
"It's no use for you to talk, Hannah," I replied, interrupting her. "No use in the world. A gallon of oil in four days has never gone by fair means in this house. So don't try to make me believe it--for I won't. I'm too old a housekeeper for that."
Finding that I was not to be convinced, Hannah became angry, and said something about her not being a "thafe." I was unmoved by this, however; and told her, with as much sternness of manner as I could assume, that I should hold her responsible for any future waste of the article; and that if she did not feel inclined to remain on such terms, she had better go.
"Dade, thin, and I'll go to onst," was the girl's spirited answer.
"Very well, Hannah. You are your own mistress in this respect," said I, coolly. "I'm not in the least troubled about filling your place; nor fearful of getting one who will waste a gallon of oil in four days."
Hannah retired from my presence in high indignation, and I fully expected that she would desert my house forthwith. But, no; unlike some others of her class, she knew when she had a good place, and had sense enough to keep it as long as she could stay.
In due time she cooled off, and I heard no more about her getting another place.
"There's that fishy smell again!" exclaimed my