Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-03-27
mind you, Peggy, the baking is half the

mind you, Peggy, the baking is half the
battle!
When the pandowdy came to the tea
table, wearing healthy brown, "Ah,"
said Uncle John, tasting it prospectively,
"that looks something like! Heyday! it
carries me straight back to the time when
was little shaver, picking up the wind
falls for mothers pandowdy. All, Peggy,
Professor Blot couldn't hold candle to
you. It smells as if all the spices of
Araby the blest had been let loose in it!
All! Oh! Humph! Pandowdy, indeed!
Pan-fiddle-sticks"
''What's the matterY" asked Peggy,
taking alarm.
"That's what I'd like to know. Perhaps
it's the modern recipe for pandowdy; but
it amt no more like my mothers than
swan are like geese. Well, well, cooking
amt the art it used to be- l amt seen a
pumpkin pie that deserved the name
these dozen years, and buckwheats don't
taste as they used to cold mornings when
l was a boy, and mother fried EN-"
"I'm so sorry" said Peggy; "but the
deceitful old thing isn't half done. When
the top looked so promising, who would
suspect that there was only raw apples
and dough floating in molasses under
meath? It's downright hypocrisy shall
never believe in pandowdies again
"How did you bake it?" asked Uncle
John, disconsolately.
'In the stove oven, to be sure. Per-
haps you thought that baked it in the
sum-"
"Ah, that's it. My mother always used
the brick oven; and SO did" And then
III IlI IL 11,,, l. Il
left the room.
said Peggy to herself. at hasn't been
used since Aunt Briefly had her shock.
I wonder if it would be safer I'll try it
tomorrow if I'm alive"
The brick oven was IN the winter kitchen
at Briefly Farm, and, as Peggy said,
had never been used or disturbed since
the day of Aunt Brierly's shock. The
kitchen itself had fallen into disuse as a
kitchen since her time. having been turn
ed to account as storeroom. So when
tomorrow came Peggy made her pan
dowdy ready, and went into the old
kitchen to light fire in the brick oven,
matches and kindlings in hand. The
rusty door of the oven grated on its
hinges, as if loath to be called into SER
vice again after so many years of idle
ness, and disclosed a newspaper twisted
together careless,y, and q handful Of
kindlings thrown upon IL, just as Aunt
Briefly had left them when paralysis
seized her Wondering what scrap
of forgotten news she might find
in an old daily of ten years
back, Peggy took the newspaper
up with a sort of shudder, shook and
smoothed it out, and let fall from among
it's folds letter, yellow, and torn, and
crumpled. She picked it up without
much concern, saw that it was addressed
to ''Miss Margaret Briefly" opened it,
and read a few impassioned lines from
Matthew Royston-a few lines imploring
her to forgive his miserable exactions,
and to send him some sign of her favor
He feared that he might have forfeited
her regard; but if she still loved him,
would she write line in answer, or
send message by the bearer, or meet him
at the stile in Lovers Lane at twilight, or,
if this were inConvenient-sued the hum
BILE lover would she set light in win
dow of the best room, which, being sell
dom used, would signify to him that he
would be welc ONE at Briefly Farm?
And all this dated ten years ago! And
she had not written the line he asked for,
nor sent the message, nor set the light in
the window, nor met him in the soft
spring twilight at the stile in Lovers
Lane.
No wonder he had married Patty Pratt!
Peggy came near having shock herself
at this revelation of the old brick oven,
and it was after twelve by the kitchen
clock before she came to her senses, and
vaguely remembered that she had been
meaning to heat the brick oven and bake
the pandowdy. Was it yesterday or the
day before!
Just then Uncle John came in to his
dinner, and found the table not set, not a
vegetable On the fire, the tea-kettle dry,
the mutton black as coal, and the pan
dowdy waiting for baking! Had Peggy
run away? And then he stepped into the
old kitchen, and found her with the yell
low letter spread out upon her lap, her
hands folded over it, and her eyes staring
hard at the opposite wall Peggy, Peg
gy, what's the matter, child % he called
twice before she needed. Then she was
on her feet in trice, rubbing her eyes as
if she had been dreaming.
"I'm heating the brick oven for the pan
dowdy," she answered, gathering her
kindlings.
Didn't you know it's after twelve,
Peggy?" he mildly suggested, picking up
the letter that had slipped to the floor.
"What's this, eh?"
Its mine; give it to me-" she cried
otis nothing-only scrap of old paper,
you see. It's my own. l found it in the
oven. Do give it to me. l have right
to it !" But Uncle John was already ad-
justing his spectacles, conscious, in sort
of hazy way, that something had troubled
Peggy, and that this yellow rag was the
something, which it was his duty to look
into
"Nobody's going to eat it, child !" he
said. "And you found it in the oven,
Ell Pretty place for love-letter.
wonder it didn't heat the oven without
any kindlings or other fuel. You didn't
answer it, l reckon 81
"Answer it! l never laid eyes on it
before to-day" said Peggy, with eyes that
struck fire.
''It's been good while On the road,
eh? April 80, 1862. Why, that's the
same day as Sophy had her shock! All!
Oh! Humphl And he married Patty
Pratt! Ahem! Amt it most dinner
time, Peggy"
Dinner! Bless me, yes. And there's
the pandowdy done to crisp No; what
am | talking about? 1t hasn't seen the
oven" And Peggy was alert and busy
in half minute.
Uncle John made no further reference
to the letter; but about month later,
when Peggy sat knitting in the twilight,
and wondering what her twilights would
have been like if Aunt Briefly had not