visit--the calves in their stalls, the rows of milch kine, and the
great piggery, where porkers of every kind and colour were tumbling
about in great excitement awaiting their morning meal. The mistress
of the house generally saw the pigs fed each day, to insure their
having food proper to them, and not the offal and foul remnants
that idle servants loved to give and they to eat were not some
supervision exercised. The care of dogs and horses the lady left to
her husband and sons, but the cows, the pigs, and the poultry she
always looked after herself.

Her daily task accomplished, she returned to the still room,
prepared for a long morning over her conserves. It was but
half-past nine now; for the breakfast hour in baronial houses was
seven all the year round, and today had been half-an-hour earlier
on account of the press of work incident to the harvesting of the
cherry crop. Several of the servants who were generally occupied
about the house had risen today with the lark, to be able to help
their lady, and soon a busy, silent party was working in pantry and
still room under the careful eye of the mistress.

One old woman who had been accommodated with a chair, though her
fingers were as brisk as any of the younger girls', from time to
time addressed a question or a remark to her lady, which was always
kindly answered. She was the old nurse of Chad, having been nurse
to Sir Oliver in his infancy, and having since had charge of his
three boys during their earliest years. She was growing infirm now,
and seldom left her own little room in a sunny corner of the big
house, where her meals were taken her by one of the younger maids.
But in the warm weather, when her stiff limbs gained a little more
power, she loved on occasion to come forth and take a share in the