Yet she had never been taught to bake; a good-natured neighbor had now and again allowed her to look on.
Then her ironing! Even Aaron opened his mouth on this subject, Blinder being his confidant.

"I thought there was a smell o' burning," he said, "and so I went butt the house; but man, as soon as my een lighted on her I minded of my mother at the same job.

The crittur was so busy with her work that she looked as if, though the last trumpet had blawn, she would just have cried, 'I canna come till my ironing's done!' Ay, I went ben without a word." But best of all was to see Grizel "redding up" on a Saturday afternoon.
Where were Tommy and Elspeth then?
They were shut up in the coffin-bed to be out of the way, and could scarce have told whether they fled thither or were wrapped into it by her energetic arms.

Even Aaron dared not cross the floor until it was sanded.

"I believe," he said, trying to jest, "you would like to shut me up in the bed too!" "I should just love it," she cried, eagerly; "will you go ?" It is an inferior woman who has a sense of humor when there is a besom in her hand.
Thus began great days to Grizel, "sweet" she called them, for she had many of her mother's words, and a pretty way of emphasizing them with her plain face that turned them all into superlatives.