He never shirked and he prevented the others from doing so; the
more they helped each other, he said, the sooner they would get done,
and if they wanted food it was only reasonable that they should help get
it ready. He himself always helped wherever he could: when one of the
maids had washed a basket of potatoes and did not like to carry it alone
because she would get all wet, he would help her carry it himself, or
would order the boy (half child, half servant) to do so; and when the
latter at first refused, or failed to come at his word, he punished him
until the boy learned to obey. It was not right, he said, for one
servant to refuse to help another take care of his clothes, or for
servants to plague each other; that was just wantonly making service
worse than it needed to be. But it was long before they grasped this,
for a peculiar atmosphere existed there. The men teased the maids
wherever they could; nowhere was there any mutual assistance. When one
of the men was asked to lend a hand he scoffed and cursed and would not
budge; even the mistress had to endure this, and when she complained to
Joggeli he simply said she was always complaining. He didn't hire
servants to help the women-folk; they had something else to do beside
hauling flowers around.
The behavior of Uli, who was not accustomed to such discord in a house,
attracted attention and brought down upon him the bitter mockery and
scorn of the men, which was aggravated intolerably by other causes.
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