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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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can’t do nothin’ when ladies is round, a henderin’. You, Sam, don’t you gib the baby dat ar sugar-bowl! I’ll crack ye over, if ye don’t mind!” “I’m going through the kitchen, and going to put everything in order, once, Di- nah; and then I’ll expect you to keep it so.” “Lor, now! Miss ‘Phelia; dat ar an’t no way for ladies to do. I never did see la- dies doin’ no sich; my old Missis nor Miss Marie never did, and I don’t see no kinder need on’t;” and Dinah stalked indignantly about, while Miss Ophelia piled and sorted dishes, emptied dozens of scattering bowls of sugar into one recepta- cle, sorted napkins, tablecloths, and towels, for washing; washing, wiping, and ar- ranging with her own hands, and with a speed and alacrity which perfectly amazed Dinah. “Lor, now! if dat ar de way dem northern ladies do, dey an’t ladies, nohow,” she said to some of her satellites, when at a safe hearing distance. “I has things as straight as anybody, when my clarin’ up time comes; but I don’t want ladies round, a-henderin’, and getting my things all where I can’t find ‘em.” To do Dinah justice, she had, at irregular periods, paroxysms of reformation and arrangement, which she called “clarin’ up times,” when she would begin with great zeal, and turn every drawer and closet wrong side outward, on to the floor or tables, and make the ordinary confusion seven-fold more confounded. Then she would light her pipe, and leisurely go over her arrangements, looking things over, and discoursing upon them; making all the young fry scour most vigorously on the tin things, and keeping up for several hours a most energetic state of confu- |
