Part 35 (1/2)
”Who wants you not to go in? Not your mother?”
”No; Aunt Candy.”
”I thought so. Well; how do you get along without your sisters, eh?
Have you got a girl, or are you goin' to do without?”
”We are going to do without.”
”I don't see how you kin, with your mother sick and wantin' somebody to tend her.”
”Maria and I do what's to be done. Mamma doesn't want us to get a girl.”
”Maria and you!” said Miss Redwood, straightening up. ”I want to know!
You and Maria. Why, I didn't reckon Maria was a hand at them kind o'
things. What can she do, eh? I want to know! Things is curious in this world.”
”Maria can do a good deal,” said Matilda.
”And you can, too, can't ye?” said Miss Redwood, with a benevolent smile at her little visitor, which meant all love and no criticism.
”I wish I knew how to do more,” said Matilda. ”I _could_, if I knew how. That's what I came to ask you, Miss Redwood; won't you tell me?”
”Tell you anything on arth,” said the housekeeper. ”What do you want to know, child?”
”I don't know,” said Matilda, knitting her brow. ”I want to know how to _manage_.”
Miss Redwood's lips twitched, and her knitting needles flew.
”So there ain't no one but you to manage?” she said, at length.
”Aunt Candy tells what is to be for breakfast and dinner. But I want to know how to _do_ things. What can one do with cold beefsteak, Miss Redwood?”
”'Tain't good for much,” said the housekeeper. ”Have you got some on hand?”
”No. We had, though.”
”And what _did_ you do with it?”
”Maria and I put it in the oven to warm; and it spoiled the dish, and the meat was all dried up; and then I thought I would come and ask you.
And we tried to fry some potatoes this morning, and we didn't know how, I think. They were not good.”
”And so your breakfast all fell through; and there was a muss, I expect?”
”No; we had eggs; n.o.body knew anything about the beefsteak and the dish. But I want to know how to do.”
”What ailed your potatoes?”
”They were too hard and too brown.”