Sossidge! Whajerdoin'?' Then a pause. Then--'Keep brekfus'
three minutes, Sossidge; I'm not dressed.'

With a mind somewhat confused, I turned to the red cow, and my first
task for Mr. Perkins. Bella--I learned subsequently that the cow, when
a young heifer, had been given this name by Mr. Perkins, because she
distinguished herself by bellowing incessantly for a whole night--proved
a singularly amiable beast. I was light-handed, and a fair
milker, I believe. Still, my hands were strange to Bella; yet she gave
down her milk most generously, and, though standing in the open,
without bail or leg-rope, never stirred till the foaming pail was
three parts full, and her udder dry. It was something of a revelation
to me, for our cows at St. Peter's had been rough scrub cattle, and
had been left to pick up their own living for the most part; whereas
Bella was aldermanic, a monument of placid satiety.

I very carefully deposited the pail inside the scullery entrance, and
withdrew then to a respectful distance, with Bella. Would this amazing
Mr. Perkins engage me? There was no doubt in my mind that I hoped he
would. I had seen practically nothing of the place, and my impressions
of it must all have been produced by the personality of its owner, I
suppose. But it did seem to me that this establishment possessed an
atmosphere of cheery kindliness and jollity such as I had never before
found about any residence. The contrast between this place and St.
Peter's was extraordinarily striking. I wondered what Sister Agatha
would have made of Mr. Perkins, or he of Sister Agatha. 'Acidulacious'
was the word he would have applied to Sister Agatha, I thought, with a
boy's readiness in mimicry; and I chuckled happily to myself in the
thinking.

IX

While I stood in the yard cogitating, a woman whose white-spotted blue
dress was for the most part covered by a very white apron emerged from
the scullery door, holding one hand over her eyes to shade them from
the morning sun.

'Ha!' she said, in a managing tone; 'so you're the new lad, are you?'
I smiled somewhat bashfully, this being a question I was not yet in a
position to answer definitely. 'Well, you're to come into breakfast
anyhow, and be sure and rub your boots on the-- Oh, you haven't any.
Well, rub your feet, then. Come on! I must see to my fire.'

So I followed her through the scullery (a spacious and airy place)
into the kitchen, having first carefully rubbed the dust off my