nted. One glance showed me
that Kotterin also was "_just caught_," and that I had as much to do
in her department as in that of my old lady.

Just then the doorbell rang. "Oh, there is the doorbell," I exclaimed.
"Run, Kotterin, and show them into the parlor."

Kotterin started to run, as directed, and then stopped, and stood
looking round on all the doors and on me with a wofully puzzled air.
"The street door," said I, pointing towards the entry. Kotterin
blundered into the entry, and stood gazing with a look of stupid
wonder at the bell ringing without hands, while I went to the door and
let in the company before she could be fairly made to understand the
connection between the ringing and the phenomenon of admission.

As dinner time approached, I sent word into my kitchen to have it set
on; but recollecting the state of the heads of department there, I
soon followed my own orders. I found the tin oven standing out in the
middle of the kitchen, and my cook seated _a la Turc_ in front of it,
contemplating the roast meat with full as puzzled an air as in the
morning. I once more explained the mystery of taking it off, and
assisted her to get it on to the platter, though somewhat cooled by
having been so long set out for inspection. I was standing holding the
spit in my hands, when Kotterin, who had heard the doorbell ring, and
was determined this time to be in season, ran into the hall, and,
soon returning, opened the kitchen door, and politely ushered in three
or four fashionable looking ladies, exclaiming, "Here she is." As
these were strangers from the city, who had come to make their first
call, this introduction was far from proving an eligible one--the look
of thunderstruck astonishment with which I greeted their first
appearance, as I stood brandishing the spit, and the terrified
snuffling and staring of poor Mrs. Tibbins, who again had recourse to
her old pocket-handkerchief, almost entirely vanquished their gravity,
and it was evident that they were on the point of a broad laugh; so,
recovering my self-possession, I apologized, and led the way to the
parlor.

Let these few incidents be a specimen of the four mortal weeks
that I spent with these "helps," during which time I did almost as
much work, with twice as much anxiety, as when there was nobody
there; and yet everything went wrong besides. The young gentlemen
complained of the patches of starch grimed to their collars, and the
streaks of black coal ir