# Tales for the Farmers' Ingle-neuk (1826, Dunfermline)/Domestic Management

This tale is an extract from Chapter 6 of The Cottagers of Glenburnie
DOMESTIC MANAGEMENT.
The aspect of the dwelling where Mrs Mason was to fix her residence, was by no means inviting. The walls were substantial: built, like the houses in the village, of stone and lime; but they were blackened by the mud which the cart-wheels had spattered from the ruts in winter, and on one side of the door completely covered from view by the contents of a great dunghill. On the other, and directly under the window, was a squashy pool, formed by the dirty water thrown from the house and in it about twenty young ducks were at this time dabbling. Their entrance in was further interrupted by the great wheypot, which had stood since morning, when the cheese had been made, and was at the present moment filled with chickens, who were busily picking at the bits of curd, which had hardened on the sides, and cruelly mocked their wishes. Over this Mr Stewart and Mrs Mason unfortunately tumbled but the accident ​was attended with no farther bad consequences, than a little hurt upon the skin; and all our party were new assembled in the kitchen; but though they found the doors of the house open, they saw no appearance of any inhabitants. At length Mrs MacClarty came in, all out of breath, followed by her daughters, two big girls of eleven and thirteen years of age. She welcomed Mrs Mason and her friends with great kindness, and made many apologies for being in no better order to receive them; and immediately fell to busying herself in sweeping in the hearth, and adding turf to the fire, in order to make the kettle boil for tea.
"I think," said Miss Mary, "you might make your daughters save you that trouble;" looking at the two girls, who stood all this time leaning against the wall.
"O poor things," said their mother, "they have not been used to it; they have eneugh o' time for wark yet"
"Depend upon it," said Mrs Mason, "young people can never begin too soon; your eldest daughter there will soon be as tall as yourself."
"Indeed she's of a stately growth," said Mrs MacClarty, pleased with the observation; "and Jenny there is little ahint her; but what are they but bairns yet, for a'that! In time, I warrant, they'll do weel eneugh. Meg can milk a cow as well as I can do, when she likes."
"And does she not always like to do all she can?" said Mrs Mason.
"O we maunna complain," returned the mother, "she does weel eneugh.
"It is no doubt a good thing," said Mrs Mason, "to have a stock of goods of any kind, provided one has a prospect of turning them to account; but I think a towel of nice clean huck-a-buck would wipe a cup as well, and better, than a damask napkin."
"Towels!" cried Mrs MacClarty, 'na, na, we maunna pretend to towels; we just wipe up the things wi what comes in the gait."
On saying this, the good woman, pulled out from between the seed-tub and her husband's dirty shoes, a long blackened rag, and with it rubbed one of the pewter plates, with which she stepped into the closet for a roll of butter. "There," says she, "I am sure ye'll say, that ye never ate better butter in your life. There's no in a' the Glen better kye than ours I hope ye'll eat heartily; and I'm sure ye're heartily welcome."
Here, thought she, is a home, in which peace and plenty seem to reign; and yet these blessings, which I thought invaluable, will not be sufficient to afford me any comfort, from the mere want of attention to the article of cleanliness. Of the two girls she could not judge favourably. The elder appeared morose and sullen, and the younger stupid and insensible. She was confirmed in her opinion by observing, that though their mother had several times desired them to go to the field for their father, neither of them stirred a step.
"Ye'll gang, I ken, my dear,"' said Mrs MacClarty, addressing herself to the younger; "O ay, I ken ye'11 gang like a gude bairn, Jean."
​Jean looked at her sister; and Mrs MacClarty, ashamed of their disobedience, but still willing to palliate the faults which her own indulgence had created, said, "that indeed they never liked to leave her, poor things! they were so bashful; but that in time they would do weel enough."
"They will never do well, if they disobey their mother," said Mr Stewart: "you ought to teach your children to obey you, Mrs MacClarty, for their sakes as well as for your own. Take my word for it, that if you don't, they, as well as you, will suffer from the consequences. But come, boys, we shall go to the field ourselves, and see how the farmer's work goes on."
Mrs MacClarty, glad of this proposal, went to the door to point the way. Having received her directions, Mr Stewart, pointing to the pool at the threshold, asked her how she could bear to have such dirty doors? "Why does not your husband fetch a stone from the quarry?" said he. "People who are far from stones and from gravel may have some excuse; but you have the materials within your reach, and by half a day's labour could have your door made clean and comfortable. How then can you have gone on so long with it in this condition?"
"Indeed, I kenna, sir," said Mrs MacClarty; "the gudeman just canna be fash'd."
"And cannot you be fash'd to go to the end of the house to throw out your dirty water? don't you see how small a drain would from that carry it down the river, instead of remaining here to stagnate, and to suffocate you with intolerable stench?"
"O, we're just used to it," said Mrs MacClarty, "and we never mind it. We cou'dna be fash'd to gang sae far wi' a' the slaistery."
"But what," returned Mr Stewart, "will Mrs Mason think of all this dirt? She has been used to see things in a very different sort of order, and if you ​will be advised by her, she will put you upon such a method of doing every thing about your house, as will soon give it a very different appearance.
Mrs Mason did indeed feel herself very uncomfortable amidst so much disorder and filth—and was determined to effect a change if possible. It was with much difficulty she could obtain from Mrs MacClarty the assistance of Grizzy, to make her own appartment comfortable: the stout girl fell to work, and when the lower vallence was removed, it displayed a scene most extraordinary;—a hoard of the remains of the old shoes that had ever been worn by any member of the family; staves of broken tubs, ends of decayed ropes, and other articles all covered with blue mould and dust.
Mrs Mason perceiving what an unpleasant task she should be obliged to impose on her assistant, deemed herself in justice bound to recompense her for her trouble; and, holding out half a half-crown piece, told her, that if she performed all she required of her, it should be her own. No sooner was Grizzy made certain of the reward, than she proceeded to wash the bed posts with soap and water. After which the chairs, the tables, the clock-case, the very walls of the room, as well as every thing it contained, all underwent a complete cleaning.
The window, in which were nine tolerably large panes of glass, was no sooner rendered transparent, than Grizzy cried out in ecstacy, "that she coud'na have thought it would have made sic a change. Dear me! how heartsome it looks now, to what it use't!" said the girl, her spirit rising in proportion to the exertion of her activity,
"And in how short a time has it been cleaned?" said Mrs Mason. "Yet had it been regularly cleaned once a-week, as it ought to have been, it would have cost far less trouble. By the labour of a minute or two, we may keep it constantly bright; and surely few days pass in which so much time may not be spared. Let us now go to the kitchen window, and make it likewise clean. Grizzy with alacrity obeyed. But before the window could be approached, it was found necessary to remove the heap of dusty articles piled up in the window sill, which served the purpose of family library, and repository of what is known by the term odds and ends.