Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1873-10-16
Belle" said I, profoundly, "haven't


process is governed by certain fixed, un-
| changeable laws?"
Belle looked little bewildered; then
smiling archly, said:
81 haven't devoted much time to chem
istry for the last ten years.
"Yes, that's the trouble" said I 'it
hasn't been chemistry, but something else
beginning with c, viz: chance. Now,
given your ingredients combined in a
certain manner, as an absolute result your
| bread is just as sure to rise as the sun is
to rise in the east. You can't keep it
down, unless you put milestone on it.
| suppose, Belle, you have wasted some
food in your experiments?"
Some! if you could see the bread and
pies and cake | have thrown away you
would be Mortified. | sometimes think
we shall come to want as punishment =
"Well, we won't waste any more. In six
lessons you can learn to make as good
bread as any body, or you are not the
bright woman l think you are. So this
week we will make bread every day OF
course we cannot eat it ALL but what we
| don't want we will give 10 the poor"
And so every day | sat by the table and
gave belle instructions, while the pretty
hands, which even hard work could not
deface nodded the loaves which came
out of the oven snowy within, a delicate
brown without-the sweet and odorous
staff of life. Saturday | left her to her
own devices, and | don't believe she
blushed more when Harry proposed to
her than when he gave her that highest
praise man can offer: "This is just as
good as my mothers" Poor Harry what
a digestion he must have had to begin
with, and what 6ete n0ir my mothers
bread" is to many young housekeeper! !!
So here was one great trouble disposed
Of Like many other troubles in life, it
needed only to be grappled with and it
| disappeared.
But how, in the meantime, did it fare
with the order of the house?
Disorder is a chronic trouble, and, like
many other chronic troubles, sometimes
needs sharp Alternative to break it up.
| Tuesday afternoon / saw something in
the parlor which made me sit down and
think little. The result was note,
| thus:
DEAR HARRY: Will you come down to the
| house soon you conveniently. In great
! haste, KITTY"
Down came Harry at pace like the
| lope of California horse. Breathless he
rushed in.
! as Belle sick?"
"No." | replied; "but come into the
! parlOr moment
| Now that he was here, | confess | was
little afraid Of the result. Men have so
much amour propre, and do so hate to be
made ridiculous, that | felt as if | had
drawn the elephant in a rattle, and didn't
| know what to do with it.
! Harry" said |, severely, "you remem-
! Der our compact, and the duty OF parents
I TO set a good exampe?"
Il could see gllmmer of suspicion in
| his face. Then | made a desperate
! plunge.
Look over on the sofa. only sent for
you to hang up your overcOat."
Pause, awful to me, while Harry vi
! brated between anger and merriment
| Finally, good fellow that he was, he sat
back in his chair and laughed heartily.
Kitty, I'll pay you for this, if | live.
| The idea of getting man home from his
office to hang up his overcoat! What
will you bet that you don't catch me
again ?"
"Bet! You are demoralizing! l have
| lived in New York, and see,, Jerome
Park; have been in Saratoga, and heard
about the races, but | never made bet
| However, just to make up with you,
Harry, I'll bet the price of that new China
| set which Belle looked at so longingly
the other day"
VERY we'll said Harry; "but you see
! if she gets t,''
After this it was a source Of much
| silent amusement to Belle and myself to
| see Harry every morning, sauntering care
| lessly around the room, as if he had no
| object whatever, but slyly looking out of
! the corners of his eyes to see if anything
of his was astray, and the pouncing upon
| the offending article, like the eagle upon
his prey. | lost my bet.
And now descend we, at one full swoop,
! from esthetcs to-potatoes.
| Perhaps you know very little about
these except in their daintiness. You
may have driven out from your hotel this
! summer and returned with a cornucopia
| of potatoes la Saratoga" and enter
tanned kind of dim fancy, if you have
! thought of it all, that they grow in some
such mysterious way; but the original
article is no more like their crisp, brown,
| brittle bits of deliciousness than the orig
| inal "What is 1t" is like a civilized, cult
waited man. No; the original potato is a
dirty, ugly tuber, with its mother earth
clinging closely around it, and needs
divers and sundry operations before it can
| be presented to your artistic eyes.
| We had made OUT a regular bill of fare,
and on this bill figured the esculent afore-
said, twice day, breakfast and dinner.
! So fourteen times a week Belle was in the
| habit of disappearing in the netkermost
regions with a little pan, which she filled
with the ugly, dirty thing, and then sub
jected to the WearisOme preparatory pro-
| cesseS.
Now, a New England housekeeper is a
! laoor-saving institution; so, one day, |
took basket and disappeared. When l
returned with it full, Belle looked up
aghast.
My goodness are we to have regi
ment for dinner?' said she.
No, replied, this is for the week
One journey for fourteen"
Bellies eyes sparkled with a new
thought. Once plant the germ of fore
thought in a woman's mind, and it will
blossom out in a thousand unexpected
ways.
But there is one thing in housekeeping,
before which the most New England like
faculty must stand abashed; there is no
laying that spectre" who is continually
ask ing for ''clean Dishes"
/ The gods on Olympus, it is said, toss
aside their gobletS, and take fresh ones
/ every time but poor mortals cannot do
/ that and so comes the inevitable soap and
water. But one can be helped through
the process, and so one day | walked out
/ to the shop of kind of halfway Hoosier
/ 20