at was just as good warmed up, she'd do then. She'd make her stews
and soups while waiting for the biscuits to bake and boil her rice or
make her cold puddings while we were eating. When that stove was
working in the morning you couldn't find a square inch of it that
wasn't working. As a result, she planned never to spend over half an
hour on her dinner at night and by the time the breakfast dishes were
washed she was through with her cooking until then.

She used her head even in little things; she'd make one dish do the
work of three. She never washed this dish until she was through with
it for good. And she'd find the time at odd moments during her cooking
to wash these dishes as they came along. If she spilled anything on
the floor she stopped right then and there and cleaned it up, with the
result that when breakfast was served, the kitchen looked as
ship-shape as when she began. When she _was_ busy, she was the busiest
woman you ever saw. She worked with her head, both hands, and her
feet. As a result instead of fiddling around all day, when she was
through she was through.

When she got up in the morning she knew exactly what she had to do for
the day, just how she was going to do it and just when she was going
to do it. And you could bank that the things at night would be done,
and be done just as she had planned. She thought ahead. That's a great
thing to master in any business.

In my own work, the plan I had outlined for myself I developed day by
day. At the end of three months I found that even what little Italian
I had then learned was a help to me. The mere fact that I was studying
their language placed me on a better footing with my fellows. They
seemed to receive it as a compliment and to feel that I was taking a
personal interest in them as a race. My desire to practise my few
phrases was always a letter of introduction to a newcomer.

I talked with them about everything--where they came from, what made
them come, what they did before they came, how long they worked and
what pay they got in Italy, how they saved to get over here, how they
secured their jobs, what they hoped to do eventually, where they
lived, how large their families were, how much it cost them to live
and what they ate. I inquired as to what they liked and what they
disliked about their work; what they considered fair and what unfair
about the labor and the pay; what they liked and didn't like about the
foreman. Often I couldn't ge