to be laid. He said that the way fires were
usually laid in this country was contrary to all the laws of nature, and
he showed her how the thing was done in Crim Tartary, or some such place,
where the science of laying fires is alone properly understood. He
proved to her that an immense saving in time and labour, to say nothing
of coals, could be effected by the adoption of the Crim Tartary system;
and he taught it to her then and there, and she went straight downstairs
and explained it to the girl.

Amenda, our then "general," was an extremely stolid young person, and, in
some respects, a model servant. She never argued. She never seemed to
have any notions of her own whatever. She accepted our ideas without
comment, and carried them out with such pedantic precision and such
evident absence of all feeling of responsibility concerning the result as
to surround our home legislation with quite a military atmosphere.

On the present occasion she stood quietly by while the MacShaughnassy
method of fire-laying was expounded to her. When Ethelbertha had
finished she simply said:--

"You want me to lay the fires like that?"

"Yes, Amenda, we'll always have the fires laid like that in future, if
you please."

"All right, mum," replied Amenda, with perfect unconcern, and there the
matter ended, for that evening.

On coming downstairs the next morning we found the breakfast table spread
very nicely, but there was no breakfast. We waited. Ten minutes went
by--a quarter of an hour--twenty minutes. Then Ethelbertha rang the
bell. In response Amenda presented herself, calm and respectful.

"Do you know that the proper time for breakfast is half-past eight,
Amenda?"

"Yes'm."

"And do you know that it's now nearly nine?"

"Yes'm."

"Well, isn't breakfast ready?"

"No, mum."

"Will it _ever_ be ready?"

"Well, mum," replied Amenda, in a tone of genial frankness, "to tell you
the truth, I don't think it ever will."

"What's the reason? Won't the fire light?"

"Oh yes, it lights all right."

"Well, then, why can't you cook the breakfast?"

"Because before you can turn yourself round it goes out again."

Amenda never volunteered statements. She answered the question put to
her and then stopped dead. I called downstairs to her on one occasion,
before I understood her peculiarities, to ask her if she knew the time.
She replied, "Yes, sir," and disappeared into the back kitchen. At the
end of thirty se