He found the house empty and the beds unmade.
The remains of breakfast stood on the kitchen-table, and a puddle of cold
tea decorated the floor. The arrival of the children from school, hungry
and eager, completed his discomfiture.
For several days he wrestled grimly with the situation, while Mrs.
Porter, who had planned out her week into four days of charing, two of
amusement, and Sunday in bed, looked on with smiling approval. She even
offered to give him a little instruction--verbal--in scrubbing the
kitchen-floor.
Mr. Porter, who was on his knees at the time, rose slowly to his full
height, and, with a superb gesture, emptied the bucket, which also
contained a scrubbing-brush and lump of soap, into the back-yard. Then
he set off down the street in quest of a staff.
He found it in the person of Maudie Stevens, aged fourteen, who lived a
few doors lower down. Fresh from school the week before, she cheerfully
undertook to do the housework and cooking, and to act as nursemaid in her
spare time.
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