Any kind of help was better than none at all, and so Mrs.Smith asked the young woman to walk in.

In treating with her in regard to her qualifications for the situation she applied for, she discovered that she knew "almost nothing at all about any thing." The stipulation that she was to be a doer-of-all-work-in-general, until a cook could be obtained, was readily agreed to, and then she was shown to her room in the attic, where she prepared herself for entering upon her duties.
"Will you please, ma'am, show me what you want me to do ?" asked the new help, presenting herself before Mrs.Smith.
"Go into the kitchen, Ellen, and see that the fire is made.

I'll be down there presently." To be compelled to see after a new and ignorant servant, and direct her in every thing, just at, so trying a season of the year, and while her mind was "all out of sorts," was a severe task for poor Mrs.Smith.She found that Ellen, as she had too good reason for believing, was totally unacquainted with kitchen work.

She did not even know how to kindle a coal fire; nor could she manage the stove after Mrs.Smith had made the fire for her.

All this did not in any way tend to make her less unhappy or more patient than before.