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"Your father made me those boots four years ago, and I've been wearing them ever since perfectly wonderful boots Well now, look here, Stubbins. You 've got to change those wet things and quick. Wait a moment till I get some more candles lit, and then we'll go upstairs and find some dry clothes. You'll have to wear an old suit of mine till we can get yours dry again by the kitchen-fire."
On the cloistered side of the quadrangle, where the dark oak panels made the enclosed space dusky, I beheld a curtained window reddened by a great blaze from within, and heard the bubbling and squeaking of something doubtless very nice and succulent that was being cooked at the kitchen-fire.
It would have seemed strange not to go in; so I went in and warmed my feet at the kitchen-fire. Only Mrs. Wood was there; but I made no inquiries. Not knowing what to say, I rose to go; but, just at that minute, the mischievous Ellen came running out of the keeping-room and wanted to know where I was going. Why didn't I come in and see Jane?
But listen to this, young lady. If ever again I see you fretting or troubling yourself about your household affairs 'No, no, Frank, I won't! 'Well, if you do, Mrs. Beeton goes into the kitchen-fire. Now remember? 'You are sure you don't envy Mr. Beeton? 'I don't envy a man upon earth. 'Then why should I try to be Mrs. Beeton? 'Why indeed? 'O Frank, what a load off my mind!
They were the days of the genial open kitchen-fire, with the crane, the pot-hooks, and trammels, where hissed and boiled the social tea-kettle, where steamed the huge dinner-pot, in whose ample depths beets, carrots, potatoes, and turnips boiled in jolly sociability with the pork or corned beef which they were destined to flank at the coming meal.
So she fumed and fretted, and sat by the kitchen-fire, drinking hot tea and talking to Ulrika all the while straining her ears for the least sound or movement from the adjoining room. But none came there was the most perfect silence.
The languid sentinel, released from duty, turns his gaze from the sickening prospect of the Gothic camp, and hastens to share the public meal; the baker starts from sleeping on his empty counter, the beggar rises from his kennel in the butcher's vacant out-house, the slave deserts his place by the smouldering kitchen-fire all hurry to swell the numbers of the guests that are bidden to the wretched feast.
The grave was covered, the spade reposited under the shed, and my seat by the kitchen-fire resumed in a time apparently too short for so solemn and momentous a transaction. I look back upon this incident with emotions not easily described.
The very spits that were before the kitchen-fire ceased turning, and the fire itself went out, and everything became as silent as if it were the middle of the night, or as if the palace were a palace of the dead.
In the midst of this festive celebration, his reverence was summoned to the hall, already perfumed with the incense of the geese, the onions, the bacon browned at the kitchen-fire, and various other delicacies, toned and enriched by the vapours that exhaled from the little bottle of punch which, in consideration of his fatigues, stood by the elbow of the piper.
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