I had to do most of the skimming, as Captain George wanted to practice a duet with Miss A----.

I may as well mention here that we never had any opportunity of seeing how the jam kept, because the smell pervaded the whole house to such an extent, that, declaring they felt like schoolboys again, the gentlemen fell on my half dozen pots of preserves in a body, carried them off, and ate them all up then and there, announcing afterwards, there had just been a pot a-piece.
It was really a dreadful time, although we got well cooked _plats_, for Captain George wasted quite as much as he used.

The pigs fed sumptuously that week on his failures, in sauces, minces; puddings, and what not.

He had insisted on our making him a paper cap and a linen apron, or rather a dozen linen aprons, for he was perpetually blackening his apron and casting it aside.

Then, he used suddenly to cease to take any interest in his occupation, and, seating himself sideways on the kitchen dresser, begin to whistle through a whole opera, or repeat pages of poetry.