Getting Ready To Lead The Way Chapter 36

Miriam remembered she still needed to bribe her father with something enticing.

Walking over to the water jug, she picked it up and took it out of the room, she quickly and as quietly as possible shut the door.

It was still early in the morning and most of the residents of the house were still asleep.

Strolling along the long hallway, and down the steps she finally came to a stop at the bottom.

Henry was pacing around at the bottom of the steps like bull ready to charge some poor spanish matador.

"Good morning, please stop pacing like a bull ready to be unleashed into a arena to gouge a matador, its to early to be that active." She said as she let out a small cute yawn.

"Oh, do you know where the kitchen is? I need go boil water to fill my water jug." Motioning with her jug, Miriam illustrated its emptiness by taking off the lid and walking up next to Henry so that his face was near the gaping, empty hole that showed the jug was, indeed empty.

The half grown youth looked at the petite little girl invading his personal space and even making references to the sacred art of bullfighting.

How did she know that was a thing?

As if seeming to know what he wanted to ask, Miriam plainly stated, "Not to be boastful, or braggadocious, but I'm definitely smarter than alot of grown adults. If you ever have a question regarding something, feel free to ask me. Also, it feels abit damp in here today, make sure you have your violin in its case and covered by some clothe to protect it from the weather. Its a nice violin, nothing bad should happen too it." Miriam went on and babbled abit after her boast.

"Want to help me get water, I don't know where you guys get yours from. What if a giant bear smashes through the wall and takes me away to Canada? I don't know how to speak French or Dutch yet. Please help me Henry." The little girl asked as she batted her fan shaped curly eyelashes.

"Its this way. Give me that..." Henry replied by mumbling and snatching her large water jug from her.

A small knowing smile crept across Miriams face. Ah what a little gentlemen when the times called for it.

Following Henry to the backside of the house, they finally came to a kitchen area.

Miriam noticed it looked abit dirty.

"Wow they really need to do a better job cleaning. Does the mother not clean?" Miroam asked innocently enough.

The hands holding the water jug flinched a little upon mention of how his aunt had

"neglected" her matronly duties of the house.

With a rather cross tone, he replied, "My aunt is bedridden from a illness in recent years, so it falls to the maid and governess to clean the large house."

"What about Francine? Surely she's old enough to help out, and Adalaide. I better start making my own meals, I don't want to get sick and die from unsanitary conditions..." Miriam said with worry etched into her tone of words.

Unsanitary? A confused Henry looked at the girl named Miriam questioningly.

What did that word mean? It sounded proper but he had never heard it before. Was his English really so bad?

Noticing the befuddled look directed her way, she cleared a throat a little and then spoke.

"Unsanitary means unclean. Not sanitary. Things being unclean can lead to sickness.

I can give you a whole 50 page lecture on this topic but some of it is hard to explain. If you ever get a microscope on hand feel free to call on me and we can discuss it in much further and intricate detail. But for now, I will give a most rudimentary and basic example."

"You cut yourself in the fresh outdoors, not a unsightly scene in sight, or a malodorous smell in the air. You cut yourself upon a branch. You bandage the cut. It turns foul. Why did it turn foul?" Miriam asked Henry who looked interested at her question.

"Bad humors in the body obviously." Henry replied with a snide look on his face.

"Wrong! Its because the cut was unsanitary. The man did not clean his cut, there could have been bugs in his cut for all he knew. If one should ever injury thy self is it most imperative that you have boiled water to wash it out, or a high concentration of alcohol to kill off any foreign invaders into the body.

Read Agostino Bassi's works regarding germ theory in silk worms.

The ignorant masses must wake up! If one spray poo to smell nicely, and eats it still, that poor person will still get sick." Getting abit heated about the archaic way in which doctors handled things in this era, Miriam got fired up.

"Have you heard of the smallpox vaccine? Why might it be do you think that the smallpox vaccine using cowpox works? The two diseases are somewhat related and simular enough that when the human body comes into contact with cowpox, it files away little reports in the body to remember what the wretched disease looks like, so when smallpox comes along, it can see its an enemy. It identifies any little smallpox bits, and eradicated it from the body like a mighty general!" Miriam was huffing and puffing by the time she finished her little rant/ tirade.

"Oh my, excuse me, I got a bit worked up. Anyway, just remember this, Miasma theory is about outdated as the earth being flat. Remember when man was certian the earth was flat? Just because it's hard to see or document something doesn't mean it isn't possibly real. I am tired of seeing people with bad hygiene and ignorant doctors by the dozens. If they manage to live long enough they will see the folly of their ways, and regret all the needless, careless, deaths they have caused through not simply washing ones hands with soap. Oops I started ranting again. Anyway, let's find some water to boil so I can put it in my water jug." Miriam said as she released a small sigh.

Looking at her weirdly, Henry asked rather dubiously, " Are you sure you are only 4 not one of those miniature people going about the countryside in entertainment troupes?"

Upon hearing this, Miriam busted out into a fit of giggles.

"I certianly do wish I was older, and a man at that. So I could make money and get rich quick with my intellect. Sadly, my fate is most likely to knit for my eventual husband and slather on cosmetics to try and keep a youthful appearence so my husband doesn't become tempted by other women and leave me!~" Miriam started out serious in the beginning but by the end of her little paragraph of dialouge she was clearly mocking and acting out a dutiful but dreary married woman. One who's husband, tempted by mistresses of the night, left her all to her own devices in her cold bed.

Henrys face flushed abit red and he said rather vehemently, "Little girls no matter how smart, should not know of or mention such things."

Giving him a doubtful glance Miriam retorted with a powerful lines in response, "Have you seen my father Henry? Half of this great country called America could be my kin with the way he goes about his 'personal life'. Nathanial and his siblings aren't the only ones born out of wedlock, my brother Bannon is, and there is another illegitimate older brother named Joseph who used to live on the Stuart estate. You know what he was like? He once said he should kill me at the age of approximately 8, so he'd get more inheritance if possible. Excuse me, who kills a child of less than three years of age? Let alone a girl! The nerve of that boy. He even whipped my legitimate older half sister with a whip just because she didn't think killing me was a good idea." Miriam began to Henry the woes of her life, not caring of he actually believed her or not.

As they stood their in the kitchen, Miriam decided to peak through the cupboards and cabinets to see what she could find for breakfast.

"Are you going to boil some water for me? I am a bit young to do it. Will you be a gentleman?" Miriam asked of Henry as she pranced around the kitchen like a agile little gazelle gathering this and that for ingredients.

His upper lip twitching up a fierce storm, Henry went to go fetch water from a well and gather some piled up nearby wood for heating the water.