Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-12-12

and returned with a cornucopia OF "pota-
toes Ia s ratoga," and entertained kind
of dim fancy, IL you have thought about 1t
at all that they grow in some such myste-
rious way, but The original article is no
more like these crisp, brown, brittle bits OF
deliciousness, than the original "What Is
It' is like civilized, cultivated man. No |;
the original potato is dirty, ugly tuber,
with It's mother earth clinging closely
around II, and needs divers and sundry op-
erations before IL can be presented 10 your
artistic eyes.
We had made out a regular bill of fare,
and on this bill figured the delicious escu-
lent aforesaid, twice a day-breakf fast and
dinner. So fourteen times q week Belle
was In the habit of disappearing In the
nethermost regions with little pan which
she filed with the ugly, dirty things, and
then subjected them TO the wearisome pre-
paratory processes.
Now, a New England housek eeper Is n
labor-saving institution so, one day, I
took basket and disappeared. When
returned with 1t full, Belle looked up
aghast.
"My goodness! are we going 10 have a
regiment at dinner?" said she.
mo-" / replied, ''ths is for the week.
One Journey for fourteen"
Bellies eyes sparkled with new thought.
Once plant the germ of forethought in a
woman's mind, and it will blossom out in
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
asking for "cIean Dishes"
The gods on Olympus, it i, said, toss
aside their goblets and take fresh ones ev-
cry time, but poor mortals cannot do that,
and so comes the inevitable soap and wa
ter. But one can be helped through the
process, and so one day I walked out to the
shop of a kind of halfway Hoosier carpen-
ter, and gave him directions for making a
dish-drainer-a thing he had never heard
OF. He brought ii 10 us next day, and we
found it source of selid comfort but,
alas lost my standing with the Hoosier.
That evening, when he went home to
"bacon and greens" for the third time that
sternation, managed 10 send il along TO me,
that
Then Yankee girls was powerful cute,
but he didn't think he should want one for
wife. He'd ruther have one of 'ornary'
kind. For woman TO be telling a man
how to make things, somehow seemed to
him agin nater."
nd nj hi lxo1
Bushnel's Reform Against Nature, and
didn't even know there was such ques-
ton as Woman's Rights.
One more experiment, and that is all.
The rest were like unto them. Good cof-
fee is drink fit for the gods. believe it
is the original nectar; but poor coffee, alas!
If the deties, in that other place, do have
anything TO assuage their thirst, II must be
that. 1t is such punishment to drink il |
snow, Belle" said I, one morning, "cof-
fee." Belle looked subdued at once, as il
she expected little more chemistry, but
spared her. "Give good coffee, properly
roasted and ground, plus boiling water,
and subtle something which Sambo call
ed de know how and the result must be
nectar. So this week We will haye coffee
for our text" and the result was, as il
must be, nectar. So il went on, and before
the expiration of six months, formally
abdicated, and Belle took the reins again,
because she knew just how to manage
them.
And did things go on in this smooth way,
and bread, and coffee, and all the necessa-
ries Of family comfort come without any
slips or mishaps?
My dear friend, | will be confidential.
There are "spots on tho sun !" there are
errati wanderinGs among the stars there
are clouds rs well as sunshine and this
little household was human.
There were days " hen things were very
wrong indeed. When the children were
cross. and Belle was tired, and I-well,
had "nerves," believe that Is the nice way
Of saying it.
There were days when letter. came from
my party OF friends, enjoying the summer
trip, which filled me with hateful discon.
tent. Hot days, when the sparkling waves
Of tie st. Lawrence dashed before my eyes
when the Thousand Isles arose out of the
mist of my vision, like the Isles of the
Blest days when the velvet lawns, the ex
quisile flowers. the spreading beach, and
the festive throng of Newport Knocked mt
in the distance and above all, the sunny
SUBMITS of the White Mountains lifted
themselves like dazzling mirage.
But those days were few. There is moth
ing like a sense of duty TO curb the wander
ing fancy.
Belle, like many another troubled youn:
house-keeper, needed only a little instruc
tion, and writes me that she has now a hap
py, well-ordered home.
AS for me, 1t is certainly very deplor
able and mournful thing for a woman t
be called "cute"-but then, II one has man
aged to help another little by it, the odi
um is more supportable.
have had my gay summer since, bu
this still call-My Well Spent Summer
------------
L. j. McIndoe, publisher OF The ver
mont Chronicle, is not able to go 10 the Pa