They were plainly
prepared to bolt at the first unusual noise.
Of the three, one--by name Mary Magdalen--proved to be a
heaven-born, predestinated cook; and her we persuaded, by bribery,
cajolery, and subornation of scruples, to remain with us
permanently. Only, she flatly refused to stay on the place
overnight. Darkness shouldn't catch Mary Magdalen under the Scarlett
Witch's roof-tree.
There are certain gifted beings who possess the secret of bringing
order out of chaos; for them the total depravity of inanimate
objects has no terrors; inanimate objects become docile to their
will. Such a one was Mary Magdalen. In two days she had transformed
a sooty cavern into a clean and orderly kitchen. For she was a
singing and a scourful woman, and her Sign was the speretual and the
scrubbing-brush. It is true that she put a precious old Spode
tea-pot on the stove and boiled the tea in it; that she hung her wig
and the dish-towel on the same nail; and that she immediately asked
for a white stocking foot to use as a coffee-bag.
"But don't you-all go bust no new pai'h," she advised economically.
"Ah 'd rathah make mah coffee in a ol' white stockin' foot any day,
jes' so you ain't done wo' out de toes too much.
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