ive you?"

She regarded him reproachfully. "Please don't say that," she protested.
"You always treat your kindness as a joke, but to me it--it--"

"There! there!" quickly. "Don't let's talk foolish. I see what you
mean, dearie. It ain't the livin' but because I'm givin' it to you that
troubles you. I know. Well, _I_ ain't complainin' but I understand your
feelin's and respect 'em. However, I shouldn't study type-writin', if
I was you. There's too much competition in it to be comfortable, as the
fat man said about runnin' races. I've got a suggestion, if you want to
listen to it."

"I do, indeed. What is it?"

"Why, just this. I've been about everythin' aboard ship, but I've never
been a steward. Now I'll say this much for Annie, she tried hard. She
tumbled into general housekeepin' the way Asa Foster said he fell into
the cucumber frame--with a jolt and a jingle; and she's doin' her best
accordin' to her lights. But sometimes her lights need ile or trimmin'
or somethin'. I've had the feelin' that we need a good housekeeper
here. If Annie's intelligence was as broad and liberal as her shoes, we
wouldn't; as 'tis, we do. I'll hire you, Caroline, for that job, if you
say so."

"I? Uncle Elisha, you're joking!"

"No, I ain't. Course I realize you ain't had much experience in runnin'
a house, and I hope you understand I don't want to hire you as a cook.
But I've had a scheme in the back of my head for a fortni't or more.
Somethin' Sylvester said about a young lady cousin of his made me
think of it. Seems over here at the female college--you know where I
mean--they're teachin' a new course that they've christened Domestic
Science. Nigh's I can find out it is about what our great gran'marms
larned at home; that, with up-to-date trimmin's. All about runnin' a
house, it is; how to superintend servants, and what kind of things
to have to eat, and how they ought to be cooked, and takin' care of
children--Humph! we don't need that, do we?--and, well, everything
that a home woman, rich or poor, ought to know. At least, she ought to
'cordin' to my old-fashioned notions. Sylvester's cousin goes there, and
likes it; and I judge she ain't figgerin' to be anybody's hired help,
either. My idea was about this: If you'd like to take this course,
Caroline, you could do it afternoons. Mornin's and the days you had off,
you could apply your science here at home, on Annie. Truly it would
save me hirin' somebody else, and--well, maybe you