Democratic standard. [volume] (Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio) 1837-1850, 1841-10-12


cape. After some preliminsries, howev
or, found out that my old woman wa,
Mrs. Tibbins, and my Hebe's name wa,
kOtterin; also that she knew more Dutch
than English, and not any too much o
either. The old lady was the cook;
Ventursd a few enquiries-"had she evel
cooked?"
"Yes ma'am. sartin, she had lived a
two or three places in the CITY,"
81 expect, my DEAR" said my husband
confidently, "that she is an experienced
cook, and all your troubles are over;'
and he went to reading the newspaper.
said no more, but determined TO waittill
morning. The breakfast, 10 he sure. did
not do much honor to the talents of my
official, but it was the first time and the
place was new to her. After breakfast
was cleared away IprocsedSd to give
directions for dinner; it was merely a
plain joiAt Of meat said, to be roasted
in the oven. The Experienced cook"
locked at me with stare of entire vacu-
ty :'tbe tin oven," | repeated, "stands
there" pointing to it.
She walked up to it and touched it
with such an appearance of suspicion, as
if it had been an electrical battery, and
then looked round at me with look Of
such helpless ignorance that my soul
was moved. 81 never see one Of them
things BEFORE" said she.
"Never saw a tin oven :" exclaimed; /;
81 thought you said you had cooked in
two or three families"
"They does not have such things as
them," reioined the old lady. Nothing
was to be done Of course but TO instruct
her into the philosophy Of the case, and
having spitted the Joint, and gave num-
bSreSs directions, walked off to my
room to superintend the operations of
Koterin, TO whom | had committed the
making of my bed, and the sweeping Of
my room; it had never came into my
head that there could be wrong way
ofmaking bed, and TO this day it is Il
marvel TO me how any one could arrange
pillows and quilts to make such non
descript appearance as mine now presen-
ted. One glance showed me that Kot-
term was "just caught" and that I had
as much to do in her department as that
Of my old lady.
Just then the door bell rang; "Oh,
there the door bell" exclaimed, "run,
Kotterin and show them into the par
lor."
Kotterin started to run as directed,
and then stopped and looked round on
all the doors, and on me, with a wofully
puzzled air, "The street door," said |,
pointing towards the entry. Kotteyin
blundsred into the entry, and stood gaz-
ing up with look of stupid wonder at the
bell ringing without hands, while | went
to the door ahd let in the company, be-
fore she conld fairly be made to under
stand the connection between the ring
ing and the phenomena of admission.
AS dinner time approached, | sent
word into my kitchen to have it sent on;
but recolecting the state of the head of
the department there, soon followed
my own orders. l found the tin oven
standing out in the middle Of the kitchen,
and my cook standing a la Turk in front
Gift, contemplating the roast beef, with
full as puzzled all air as in the morning,
| once more explained the mystery Of
taking it out, and assisted her to get il
on the platter, though somewhat cooled
by having been SO long set oIt for in
spection. | was standing holding the spit
in my hand, when Kotterin, who had
heard the door bell ringing, and was de-
termined this lime to be in season, ran
into the hall, and soon returning, opened
the kitchen door, and politely ushering
in three or four fashionable looking la
dies, exclaimeds s"here she isl" AS these
were strangers from the city who had
come to make their first call, this intro
duction was far from being an eligible
one-the look of thunderstruck aStonish-
ment with which | greeted their first ap-
pearance, as ! stood brandishing the spit,
and the terrified snufing and staring of
poor Mrs. Tibbins who again had re-
course to her old pocket handkerchief,
almost vanlshed'their gravity, and it was
evident they were on the point of broad
laugh; so recovering my Self-possessoD,
| apOlogized, and led the way into the
parlor.
Let these few moments be specimen
Of four mortal weeks that spent with
these 'helps' during which time | did al.
most as much work with twice as much
anxiety Ms when there was nobody here,
and every thing went wrong beside. The
young gentlemen complained Of the pat
ches Of starch grimtned to their collars,
and the streaks OF black coal irCned into
their dickeys, while one week every
pocket handkerchief about the house was
starched so stiff that you might as we'll
have carried an eahhen plate in your
pocket; the tumblers looked muddy, the
plates were never washed clean or wiped
=