“Cook,” said the lady abbess, who took care to be on the top stair, the very last of the group⁠—“cook, why don’t you go a little way into the garden?”

“Please, ma’am, I don’t like,” responded the cook.

“Lor, what a stupid thing that cook is!” said the thirty boarders.

“Cook,” said the lady abbess, with great dignity; “don’t answer me, if you please. I insist upon your looking into the garden immediately.”

Here the cook began to cry, and the housemaid said it was “a shame!” for which partisanship she received a month’s warning on the spot.

“Do you hear, cook?” said the lady abbess, stamping her foot impatiently.

“Don’t you hear your missis, cook?” said the three teachers.