a very dry and crusty
mass. Still, nothing daunted, I persevered in the attempt, added more
flour and water, and finally made it up into loaves, which I deposited
in the oven. That bread _never_ baked! I tried it with a knife in
the orthodox manner, always to find that it was raw inside. The crust
gradually became several inches thick, but the inside remained damp, and
turned quite black at last; I baked it until midnight, and then I gave
it up and retired to bed in deep disgust. I had no more yeast and
could not try again, so we lived on biscuits and potatoes till the dray
returned at the end of the week, bringing, however, only one servant.
Owing to some confusion in the drayman's arrangements, the cook had been
left behind, and "Meary," the new arrival, professed her willingness to
supply her place; but on trial being made of her abilities, she proved
to be quite as inexperienced as I was; and to each dish I proposed she
should attempt, the unvarying answer was, "The missis did all that where
I come from." During the first few days after her arrival her
chief employment was examining the various knick-knacks about the
drawing-room; in her own department she was greatly taken with the
little cottage mangle. She mangled her own apron about twenty times a
day, and after each attempt I found her contemplating it with her head
on one side, and saying to herself, "'Deed, thin, it's as smooth as
smooth; how iver does it do it?" A few days later the cook arrived.
She is not all I could wish, being also Irish, and having the most
extraordinary notions of the use, or rather the abuse, of the various
kitchen implements: for instance, she will poke the fire with the
toasting fork, and disregards my gentle hints about the poker; but at
all events she can both roast mutton and bake bread. "Meary" has been
induced to wash her face and braid up her beautiful hair, and now shines
forth as a very pretty good-humoured girl. She is as clever and quick as
possible, and will in time be a capital housemaid. She has taken it into
her head that she would like to be a "first-rater," as she calls it, and
works desperately hard in the prosecution of her new fancy.

I have never told you of the Sunday services we established here from
the first week of our arrival. There is no church nearer than those
in Christchurch, nor--I may mention parenthetically--is there a doctor
within the same distance. As soon as our chairs and tables were in their
pr