"Me savey scrub
'im, and sweep 'im, and wash 'im, and blue 'im, and starch 'im," she said
glibly, with a flash of white teeth against a babyish pink tongue. She
was wearing a freshly washed bright blue dress, hanging loosely from her
shoulders, and looked so prettily jolly, clean, capable, and
curly-headed, that I immediately made her housemaid and Head of the
Staff.
"Great Scott!" the Maluka groaned, "that makes four of them at it!" But
Rosy had appealed to me and I pointed out that it was a chance not to be
missed and that she was worth the other three all put together. "Life
will be a perennial picnic," I said, "with Rosy and Cheon at the head of
affairs "; and for once I prophesied correctly.
Rosy, having been brought up among white folk, proved an adept little
housemaid and Cheon looked with extreme favour upon her, and held her up
as a bright and shining example to Jimmy's Nellie. But the person Cheon
most approved of at the homestead was Johnny; for not only had Johnny
helped him in many of his wild efforts at carpentry, but was he not
working in the good cause?
"What's 'er matter, missus only got one room?" Cheon had said, angry
with circumstances, and daily and hourly he urged Johnny to work quicker.
