Sarah (colored) was willing and pleasant, but insufferably untidy.

Bridget was neatness itself, but she had no conception of the value of time.

Her meals were always from thirty to sixty minutes late, and half-cooked at that.

Vera sang--when she wasn't whistling--and as she was generally off the key, and always off the tune, her almost frantic mistress dismissed her before twenty-four hours had passed.

Then came Mary Ellen.
Mary Ellen began well.