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Turning The Tables
by
Great was the consternation of the mutineers when the “boss” appeared in the dismantled kitchen and ordered them all off the premises. In vain they protested, laying the blame on first one and then another. Their day of grace was ended and no quarter shown. Wilfully and from sheer love of bickering, they had offended all sense of justice and propriety, and in unbroken ranks they must go.
When the fiat had irretrievably gone forth, they showed again the claws and the cloven foot. The “cook-lady” said she “didn’t hafter work nohow;” she reckoned she could “git along.” The maids and the waiters took the cue and were equally independent. But though paid their wages in full, they were discharged without “a recommend”; and this, in the height of the season, was no small privation.
“Teach them a lesson!” muttered the proprietor with satisfaction. “Serves them right! I’m rather glad of the row.”
Cheerily the guests fell to work in their several departments, and if more than one match for life was not made among the young people, it was from no lack of genuine admiration in their new roles. The lads and lassies were happy and rosy and busy at their self-appointed tasks. The white-coated waiters were dubbed “No. 47,” “No. 50,” and so on, and right nobly they served the well-spread tables, which lacked nothing, not even the boon of contentment, which so helps digestion.
The flushed matrons behind big kitchen aprons, with diamonds locked away in the hotel safe, took turns to perfection. Many guests took their ease, and were mere lookers-on at the frolic; but a right goodly company put their shoulders to the wheel.
When the new corps of “help” were installed, they found the hotel clean and tidy from attic to cellar, and everything in its proper place.
The episode was one to be remembered by the malcontents, who had had a severe lesson; by the host, who had seen a genuinely good side of human nature; and the ladies who had so nobly stepped into the breach, learned during their brief period of servitude to be more patient and considerate to those who serve.