***Patience***
Dear Diary
Mrs Patmore is very nice sometimes and very strange the next. Last Sunday we had brussels sprouts with our dinner and I sat down to eat my meal last because I have to dish up the other servants first and in all the rush I somehow ended up with sprouts on my plate and I HATE them (not the other servants, the sprouts).
I was thinking I would have to put them in the pig swill bin for the Downton farms when Mrs Patmore said, " Daisy, are you going to eat your dinner or just gaze at it in admiration?"
I don't know why she thought I would admire sprouts when they are horrible, but I was very patient and said, "No, Mrs Patmore, I wasn't admiring it, I ate all my dinner except for the sprouts. I don't mean I hate all my dinner except for the sprouts because I liked all my dinner except for the sprouts, which is why I ate all my dinner except for the sprouts
But then Jack the boot boy, who sits opposite me on the men side, almost choked chewing something while I was still patiently explaining and Mrs Patmore stopped listening to me and gave a big sigh and told him to drink some water. I think he choked because he was laughing at poor Mrs Patmore for some reason so serve him right.
I hope you don't think I have got too posh for you now because I pronounce ate like EIGHT and not ETT like we all used to say in the old days and I am using words like pronounce, which I read in Mr Carson on top of the piano dictionary, but Mr Carson says we are in a posh house so we have to behave posh like the ladies and gentlemen. Of course he doesn't say it like that because he is too posh.
He says things like We have exceptionally high standards to uphold and Remember we represent Downton Abbey at all times. We even have to be posh in the servants' hall when we are eating.
Woah beside* you if you put your elbows on the table or if your back touches the chair because you are not sitting proper like Upstairs, though we don't have to wear hats and gloves like they do even if they do put their gloves in their laps to eat. I haven't seen them because I am not allowed Upstairs, but I have heard other servants say the ladies wear hats and gloves when they have afternoon tea so it must be very cold up there even with all the fires. I am glad I don't have to wear them, though, because I knitted myself a hat, gloves and scarf and couldn't do the fingers in the gloves so it would be hard holding my knife and fork. But the servants' hall is quite warm so we don't have to wear anything. It is a good job because I drop a lot of stitches. I am not very good at knitting, though I am even worse at sewing.
Mrs Patmore asked about it once as she takes a great interest in me. We were chatting after I put a tablespoonful of salt instead of a teaspoonful in a recipe by mistake and she said she wondered why one earth I decided to become a kitchen maid. I said it was because ladies maids and nursery maids and housemaids and all the other maids have to sew and kitchen maids don't. Then I told her about the time when Mam and Dad were still alive and Lady Hogg, who lived in one of the better off houses in Arncliffe Road, asked me to sew a hem on her little girl's frock, but it went all wonky and she wouldn't pay me even though Peggy loved having a frock all different lengths and all her friends wanted wonky hems too and about how she wasn't really Lady Hogg, her name was Mrs Hogg, we just called her that because she put on airs and graces, on account of the family living in one of the better off houses in Arncliffe Road and on account of her old man having a little shop on the corner of Hardcastle Street, and Mrs Patmore must have felt very sad about me not being paid because she sighed and said she wished she hadn't asked.
But I take a great interest in Mrs Patmore too and always patiently explain things and help with her superstitions. In the book Madge lent me, Vivienne, who is the heroine, gave her cousin Eleanor, who is another heroine, a pair of dressmaking scissors so Eleanor gave her a penny because she said it was bad luck to receive something sharp unless you gave them a penny. I was very worried when I read this because I know yesterday Mr Carson gave Mrs Patmore a new kitchen knife, but nobody gave anybody a penny. I didn't want Mrs Patmore to fret about bad luck so I brought a penny down with me this morning and said to Mrs Patmore she could give it to Mr Carson. But instead of taking it she stopped in the middle of the truffled eggs and said, "I'm quite certain Mr Carson is very well paid for his troubles, Daisy. He doesn't need any pennies from you."
I said, "No, Mrs Patmore, the penny is for you."
She looked very confused - it is because she is quite old - and said, "Well, it's very kind of you, Daisy, I'm sure, but I don't need your pennies either."
By then everyone was laughing and my face was on fire and my apron nearly was because I got too near the pan on the stove while trying to patiently explain so I had to splash it with water and Mrs Patmore still wouldn't take the penny. It must have been too late to avoid bad luck, though, because she said, "Lord preserve us!" And walked over to the other side of the big cooking table and took a deep breath so I think realising she didn't give Mr Carson a penny must have made her feel faint. ***
By the way, I know you will be shocked at me not eating my sprouts because I would eat anything years ago when I was so hungry all the time. But there is plenty to eat here and we sometimes even get the same food as Upstairs. Weary Winnie said this is very unusual as in the other places she worked the servants always had meat stew with a few vegetables and hardly any meat and bread and rice pudding for dinner and oatmeal and toast for breakfast. I noticed she didn't eat much of her dinner, but nobody asked if she was admiring it so I am not sure if she was.
Sprouts for dinner
are not a winner
they are not so great
and I can't clean my plate
to Mrs Patmore's wishes
but I wash all the dishes
and I am not barking****
my dishes are sparkling
ps Lizzie keeps hinting she might tell me her Big Secret soon. I think she is just annoyed because I am not asking loads of questions. I will tell you as soon as I know what it is, but I bet it's something stupid.
A/N:*woah beside – Daisy means woe betide
**the gloves and hats worn by the ladies at afternoon tea are of course vastly different to the knitted hats and gloves Daisy imagines
***An old superstition is to give a penny to someone who gifts you something sharp or you will quarrel with them. Mrs Patmore, who is not quite as superstitious as Daisy and Lizzie seem to think, was probably unfamiliar with this particular superstition and certainly didn't take it as seriously as Daisy believed she would!
****barking – British (informal) crazy
