The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy

Preparations for Matilda's welcome, and for the event which was to / follow, at once occupied the attention of the mill. The miller and his / man had but dim notions of housewifery on any large scale; so the great / wedding cleaning was kindly supervised by Mrs. Garland, Bob being mostly / away during the day with his brother, the trumpet-major, on various / errands, one of which was to buy paint and varnish for the gig that / Matilda was to be fetched in, which he had determined to decorate with / his own hands.

By the widow's direction the old familiar incrustation of shining dirt, / imprinted along the back of the settle by the heads of countless jolly / sitters, was scrubbed and scraped away; the brown circle round the nail / whereon the miller hung his hat, stained by the brim in wet weather, was / whitened over; the tawny smudges of bygone shoulders in the passage were / removed without regard to a certain genial and historical value which / they had acquired. The face of the clock, coated with verdigris as thick / as a diachylon plaister, was rubbed till the figures emerged into day; / while, inside the case of the same chronometer, the cobwebs that formed / triangular hammocks, which the pendulum could hardly wade through, were / cleared away at one swoop.

Mrs. Garland also assisted at the invasion of worm-eaten cupboards, where / layers of ancient smells lingered on in the stagnant air, and recalled to / the reflective nose the many good things that had been kept there. The / upper floors were scrubbed with such abundance of water that the / old-established death-watches, wood-lice, and flour-worms were all / drowned, the suds trickling down into the room below in so lively and / novel a manner as to convey the romantic notion that the miller lived in / a cave with dripping stalactites.

They moved what had never been moved before -- the oak coffer, containing / the miller's wardrobe -- a tremendous weight, what with its locks, hinges, / nails, dirt, framework, and the hard stratification of old jackets, / waistcoats, and knee-breeches at the bottom, never disturbed since the / miller's wife died, and half pulverized by the moths, whose flattened / skeletons lay amid the mass in thousands.

'It fairly makes my back open and shut! ' said Loveday, as, in obedience / to Mrs. Garland's direction, he lifted one corner, the grinder and David / assisting at the others. 'All together: speak when ye be going to heave. / Now!'

The pot covers and skimmers were brought to such a state that, on / examining them, the beholder was not conscious of utensils, but of his / own face in a condition of hideous elasticity. The broken clock-line was / mended, the kettles rocked, the creeper nailed up, and a new handle put / to the warming-pan. The large household lantern was cleaned out, after / three years of uninterrupted accumulation, the operation yielding a / conglomerate of candle-snuffs, candle-ends, remains of matches, / lamp-black, and eleven ounces and a half of good grease -- invaluable as / dubbing for skitty boots and ointment for cart-wheels.

Everybody said that the mill residence had not been so thoroughly scoured / for twenty years. The miller and David looked on with a sort of awe / tempered by gratitude, tacitly admitting by their gaze that this was / beyond what they had ever thought of. Mrs. Garland supervised all with / disinterested benevolence. It would never have done, she said, for his / future daughter-in-law to see the house in its original state. She would / have taken a dislike to him, and perhaps to Bob likewise.

'Why don't ye come and live here with me, and then you would be able to / see to it at all times? ' said the miller as she bustled about again. To / which she answered that she was considering the matter, and might in good / time. He had previously informed her that his plan was to put Bob and / his wife in the part of the house that she, Mrs. Garland, occupied, as / soon as she chose to enter his, which relieved her of any fear of being / incommoded by Matilda.

The cooking for the wedding festivities was on a proportionate scale of / thoroughness. They killed the four supernumerary chickens that had just / begun to crow, and the little curly-tailed barrow pig, in preference to / the sow; not having been put up fattening for more than five weeks it was / excellent small meat, and therefore more delicate and likely to suit a / town-bred lady's taste than the large one, which, having reached the / weight of fourteen score, might have been a little gross to a cultured / palate. There were also provided a cold chine, stuffed veal, and two / pigeon pies. Also thirty rings of black-pot, a dozen of white-pot, and / ten knots of tender and well-washed chitterlings, cooked plain in case / she should like a change.

As additional reserves there were sweetbreads, and five milts, sewed up / at one side in the form of a chrysalis, and stuffed with thyme, sage, / parsley, mint, groats, rice, milk, chopped egg, and other ingredients. / They were afterwards roasted before a slow fire, and eaten hot.

The business of chopping so many herbs for the various stuffings was / found to be aching work for women; and David, the miller, the grinder, / and the grinder's boy being fully occupied in their proper branches, and / Bob being very busy painting the gig and touching up the harness, Loveday / called in a friendly dragoon of John's regiment who was passing by, and / he, being a muscular man, willingly chopped all the afternoon for a quart / of strong, judiciously administered, and all other victuals found, taking / off his jacket and gloves, rolling up his shirt-sleeves and unfastening / his collar in an honourable and energetic way.