Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-04-12
Gales aud Sketehes.
AN OLD.FAsRIONED REMEDY.
WORK VERSUS HERB.TEA.
lcoSTISuEp FROM YEsrERpAr. {

lcoS7ISuED FROM YEsrERDAY.I e
When Mrs. Whitaker heard that Luna
prepared the potatoes for dinner In the
wash-hand basin. and put the best tea
Knives soaking in the bottom of the pan
while she did the other dishes, tea-knfves
whose glossy handles were Mrs. Whita-
ker's Epride--her indignation knew no
bounds.
81 won't have her in the house another
minute! ] can't sleep till she is ont OF 1t |!
The idea! My best tea-knives! I've
been SO particular never even to damp the
handles, and always kept them put away
In tissue paper, and now they are ruined!
Do get her out of the house before she
spoils everything in 1t, and poisons us
ALI"
Luna went, Susan cleaned up the house,
and prayed, whatever other calamity
might be in store for them, they might at
least be spared another girl. Susan was
much better now. Her mothers illness
had taken her out of herself, and Obliged
her to make some exertion. She went
into housework with will, equally pleas.
ed and surprised to find herself really
good for something. Ned helped her all
he could, and novel were some of the ex-
periments of what Ned called the ..new
gils."
One dag Susan decided to have baked
beans for dinner. She put something like
two quarts boiling. By and by, looking
in the pot, she was dismayed to find it full
of beans to the very brim. She took out
nearly half, but still the beans continued
to swell beyond her widest torebodngs.
Nod in IN 6innor IN find
dish of baked beans crowning the dinner.
table, while several pans Of the same
agreeable edbles, in various stages Of
doneness were standing around the kitch.
en-.
"Whe.ew :" exclaimed Ned. You're
good provider' Sue, but seems to me
you are rather OVERRIDING this bean busi-
ness. feel about beans as the old lady's
hired man did about liver. He liked 1t
we'll enough for fifty or sixty days. but
didn't care about 1t for steady diet"
Don't laugh, Ned" said poor Sue,
looking anxious and exhausted. .'Tve had
really dreadful time with the things: I
positively believe three beans would have
been enough"
Susan usually had very good success
with her bread But one day there arose
an unforeseen complication. The sponge
had soured in the night,
Ned" she said. "did you ever notice
how much soda mother uses when the
sponge is sour? I'm sure don't know
Nor |. guess she just stirs it in till
it tastes all right"
She put in large tea-spoonful of Soda
Then she and Ned both tasted it.
"'Tant right yet" said Ned, with an
air OF wisdom and experience Dab in
some more
In went another spoonful. Another test
ing by the cooks.
1T tastes smarty," said Sue. believe
l shall put in another spoonful"
After getting in four spoonfnis, they con-
cluded it would "do."
The bread came out of the oven deep
yellow brown in hue. and exhaling an
odor of soda. Sue made
biscuit for tea, and the pigs revelled in
new bread for supper that night Ned, be-
ing implicated. swore solemn secrecy;
and. as he used afterwards triumphantly
to observe. ''it didn't kill the pigs either"
"But Susan's experiences were not all
so disastrous. Mrs. Whitaker was quite
astonishcd to see how we'll things went on
She really began to think Susan was Il
'natural cook" Daughters of such no
table housekeeperS as Mrs. Whitaker are
apt to he natural cooks" Order and
method is the rule of the house, and they
adopt. instinctively. "mothers way" Of
doing things. A certain deftness OF skill
is hereditary with them. Perhaps, if Su-
san had, rs she sometimes wished in the
old dreamy days, been an "authoress,r
her proudest triumphs would have given
her no deeper thrill ofpleasure than when
her father said
Susan, this is really capital squash pie
If your mother don't look out. you will
beat her yet. just give me another piece"
One day Ned astonished Sue with a
bona fdc compliment.
You're growing handsome, Sue," said
he.
Sue thought Ned was making fun OF her
thereby, for once, doing him an injustice.
For there is no surer cosmetic and beau
titier than housework, when not carried
to excess. No amount of dumb-bells,
flesh brushes, constitutional walks and
drives. gives the energy. the brisk circu-
lation. the cheerful tone to body and mind
that comes from the vigorous. varied eX-
ercise of housework. Sue flew briskly
around the house now, singing as she
made beds up stairs, with the fresh morn
ing air sweeping breezily through the
open windows, now sweeping the sitting
room, now kneading dough. now out In
the garden for vegetables, all this varied
work bringing every muscle into play the
more healthily, because not done deliber-
ately and with ''malice forethought."
'lIow do you feel, to-day, Susan ~ que
ried Mrs. Whitaker, anxiously.
IL really don't know, mother" replied
Susan, laughingly. Il haven't had time
to think"
And so Sue had grown plump and rosy.
had a buoyant step. light and sparkle in
her eyes. the radience in looks and spirit
that comes from sound mind in a sound
body.
One Monday. Sue was in the clothes
yard, trying to hang out the clothes. Sue
was short, and the line high up, and the
wind blowing a gale. 1t certainly was
provoking wind. 1t blew Sues sun-bon-
act off, and her curly brown hair into all
sorts of wild tangles and tousles. and the
:able.cloth she was trying to hang up kept