Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1870-02-11
5}liseellanp.
The First Year of Housekeeping.
BY MRS. II. C. GARDNER.

1t is no fiction that | sit down TO my
desk to chronicle this evening. As ]
look back through the long vista Of
years, and review the early days Of my
married life, its perplexities and cares
come up before me in far more vivid
colors than its joys though the retro
spect often provokes laugh where the
real experience caused bitter tears.
was just twenty years old when be-
came the wife of clergyman, poor
country pastor. 1t was a love match,
and, with the usual thriftlessness of low
ers, / think it did not then occur to us
that we could not live upon love, or that
it would need such vulgar appliances as
roast beef and palatable puddings to pre-
serve, in its purity, the divine essence of
the grand passion.
Every body said that ! was totally un-
fit for minister's wife. | was, natural
| ly, exceedingly joyous and mirthful, and
without a particle of the staid dignity
expected from persons in my position ;
while my husband was grave, thought
ful man, endowed by nature with COM
manding personal appearance and pre-
possessing manners. | do not wonder
now that people could not see the pro-
priety of his choosing me for his wife.
when so many pattern women stood
ready to accept him. My own family
had but one objection to the match he
was poor, and l had no idea of practical
housekeeping.
All how well / remember the first
washing day My husband after vainly
trying to persuade me to employ wash
erwoman-I knew he could not afford it
came into the back kitchen to help me
himself. We were very merry at first,
but after rubbing off little patches OF
skin from every knuckle, and burning
our arms till they looked like illustrated
maps of some unknown country, we be-
gan to find out that there was little poe
try, and no fun, in the wash-tub.
But the ironing-day was worse yet.
Nothing but pride kept me from rolling
those starched shirts into bundle and
taking them across the fields to my
mothers kitchen. / forgot to mention
that we had taken up our abode in a
parish but one mile distant from my
fathers house.
/ had never ironed any starched
clothes of any description; but from my
brothers at home / had imbibed very
exalted ideas in regard to the Importance
of immaculate shirt bosoms. My hus-
band told me all he could remember OF
his mothers method, and then betook
himself to his study. Shall | ever for
get my feelings when the fat-iron, heat
ed seven times hotter than its wont, and
carefully applied to the glutinous surface
suddenly struck up an attachment for
the same, and, when forcibly separated
left its whole image and superscription
behind in black and brown colors /
have that shirt now. l keep it to show
to those wise mothers who are training
their daughters for future usefulness.
But it was in cooking that found my
chief trouble. All my attempts in that
line, at the time commenced housekeep-
ing, had resulted in spelling several kinds
of rich cake concocted in accordance
with those impossible receipts which fill
our modern cookery books / had new
er made loaf of bread in my life. Ba-
kers' bread served us for time-for so
long a time, indeed, that we found out
all its good qualities, and have not test
ed its excellencies for many years.
We had been married and settled
nearly a fortnight, when, one morning,
my husband came in with letter in his
hand and very anxious expression on
his face. l sprang up from my seat,
nearly upsetting the breakfast table,
which was waiting for him.
"What is the matter, Frank Is any
body siek-or dead +? Have you got bad
news ?"
"No. At least it ought not to be bad
news"
Well, what is it? Something serious
i know from your looks
"No, Hattie; nothing of the kind.
Only feared it might annoy you. 1t is
ouly note from my college chum, Fred
knowles, saying that he is going to Bos-
ton, and will call on us, and-and-gct
his dinner to-day" said my husband re-
luctantly.
1t was my first call to entertain COM
pany, and knowing, by this time, my ig-
norance, I shrank back affrighted from
the prospect confess, too, a feeling Of
deep modification that my husband
could not receive his most intimate
friends without so serious drawback
upon his pleasure. All my natural en-