Cold Comfort
Whisking a froth of syllabub, the cook
Snapped at her kitchen maid ‘Don’t daydream miss,
Look sharp! Don’t dilly-dally, fetch my ice.’
The girl stopped scouring pans with hands cracked raw
And reeled exhausted on her clog-shod feet,
Thankful that she might snatch a breath of air.
‘Better take the boot-boy,’ called the cook,
‘He’ll shift the ice block since you feel so beat.’
All through the buttercups, pole-axed by heat,
Walked Fanny, freed from toil with boot-boy Tom,
Dawdling on the path towards the Ice House.
Tom turned the key, while she – sweat dewed her brow –
Day-dreamed about Cook’s famous lemon cream
Cold as polar snow in the servants’ hall
Below-stairs perks beyond the green baize door,
Leftovers from his Lordship’s Summer Ball.
Inside the wintry cavern they went wild
Where frozen slabs stood stacked in chilly rows.
They rolled and slid and hid amid the ice,
Played catch-as-catch-can and kissed each other (twice),
Till, sighing, Tom filled up his burlap sack,
Slipping a shard of ice down Fanny’s back,
Such bliss as this was not for them the poor,
Bond-slaves once more outside the Ice House door.
Page(s) 39
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