There were many Scottish
refugees then in Holland, and the Homes kept open house, and spent
nearly a fourth part of their income on a mansion sufficiently
commodious to allow of their hospitalities. This made it impossible for
them to keep any servant save a little girl who washed the dishes, and
consequently Grisell acted as cook, housekeeper, housemaid, washerwoman,
laundress, dressmaker, and tailoress. Twice a week she sat up at night
to do the family accounts. Daily she rose before six, went to the market
and to the mill to see their own corn ground, and--in the words of her
daughter, who proudly tells the tale--"dressed the linen, cleaned the
house, made ready the dinner, mended the children's stockings and other
clothes, made what she could for them, and in short did everything." She
was very musical and loved playing and singing, but when, for a small
sum, a harpsichord was bought, it was her younger sister, Christian, who
was the performer, and by it "diverted" her parents, and the girls had
many a joke over their different occupations. Yet even with all her
other work she found time to take an occasional lesson in French and
Dutch from her father along with the younger ones, and even wrote a book
of songs--many of them half written, broken off in the middle of a
sentence as a pot boiled over or an iron grew hot enough to use.
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