hant air, at
the door. "There, Margaret, I have got you a couple at last--cook and
chambermaid." So saying, he flourished open the door, and gave to my
view the picture of a little, dry, snuffy-looking old woman, and a
great, staring Dutch girl, in a green bonnet with red ribbons, with
mouth wide open, and hands and feet that would have made a Greek
sculptor open _his_ mouth too. I addressed forthwith a few words of
encouragement to each of this cultivated-looking couple, and proceeded
to ask their names; and forthwith the old woman began to snuffle and to
wipe her face with what was left of an old silk pocket handkerchief
preparatory to speaking, while the young lady opened her mouth wider,
and looked around with a frightened air, as if meditating an escape.
After some preliminaries, however, I found out that my old woman was
Mrs. Tibbins, and my Hebe's name was _Kotterin;_ also, that she knew
much more Dutch than English, and not any too much of either. The old
lady was the cook. I ventured a few inquiries. "Had she ever cooked?"

"Yes, ma'am, sartain; she had lived at two or three places in the city."

"I suspect, my dear," said my husband confidently, "that she is an
experienced cook, and so your troubles are over;" and he went to reading
his newspaper. I said no more, but determined to wait till morning. The
breakfast, to be sure, did not do much honor to the talents of my
official; but it was the first time, and the place was new to her. After
breakfast was cleared away I proceeded to give directions for dinner; it
was merely a plain joint of meat, I said, to be roasted in the tin oven.
The _experienced cook_ looked at me with a stare of entire vacuity. "The
tin oven," I repeated, "stands there," pointing to it.

She walked up to it, and touched it with such an appearance of suspicion
as if it had been an electrical battery, and then looked round at me
with a look of such helpless ignorance that my soul was moved. "I never
see one of them things before," said she.

"Never saw a tin oven!" I exclaimed. "I thought you said you had cooked
in two or three families."

"They does not have such things as them, though," rejoined my old lady.
Nothing was to be done, of course, but to instruct her into the
philosophy of the case; and having spitted the joint, and given
numberless directions, I walked off to my room to superintend the
operations of Kotterin, to whom I had committed the making of my bed and
the sweeping