And Fetchke did it all.

She went to the river with the women to wash the clothes, and tucked up her dress and stood bare-legged in the water, like the rest of them, and beat and rubbed with all her might, till our miserable rags gleamed white again.
And I?
I usually had a cold, or a cough, or something to disable me; and I never had any talent for housework.

If I swept and sanded the floor, polished the samovar, and ran errands, I was doing much.

I minded the baby, who did not need much minding.

I was willing enough, I suppose, but the hard things were done without my help.
Not that I mean to belittle the part that I played in our reduced domestic economy.