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

i
back again. but how can it possibly COM
pare with flying around room and putting
it in exquisite order, that those you love
may be comfortable in ii 2
To enjoy your work thoroughly you mus
idealize It, and who could idoalize pair o
| dumb bells7
Saturday night came, and the house was
like a bandbox. Then put my finger on
q "tender spot in the household economy
About one-fourth OF the needless work
was caused by q lack of order. The Lord
of Misrule was sovereign, and 1t some
times looked as If hats, and coats, dresses
and playthings had rained down.
"Now," said I, quoting my mother, "the
house cannot be untidy If every person
puts his or her own things in place."
Hear! hearv' shouted cousin Harry,
Bellies husband mischevously.
"You may laugh, Harry" said I, shak-
ing my head at him, "but IL is true"
"Thats so," he replied, "there's consid-
erable sense in that curly head of yours,
after ALL"
every WE'LL" said ], "what is the use oil
sense if 1t wont help us out of our troub-
les? Now 1 am going TO draw up a-what
do you call it?-an agreement, by which
each member OF the family binds himself
to keep his or her things in perfect ORDER"
All entered mcrrily into the arrangement.
Harry drew up a formidable looking docu-
ment. He and Belle signed first; under
meath the children wrote in regular order,
and one of them gleefully put the pen be-
tween the baby's chubby fingers and guild
ed them TO make "his mark"
Then we reduced the regular routine OF
the work TO a perfect system, and every
day cousin Belle was TO devote her spare
time TO learning something.
Monday morning came. Tho house was
in perfect order. Belle says, cheerily:
"We!l, Kitty, what is the juvenile pupil
TO learn to-day?"
"What would you like?"
"Tf could only make such bread as you
used to have at your house! 1t was the
very poetry of food! Mine is sour, or it
won't rise, or something is the matter with
it half the time, so that it isn't fit to eat"
"Bele," said l, profoundly, "haven't you
learned from Tyndal, and Huxley, and
Maria Mitchell, and the Popular Science
Monthly, that making bread is chemical
process, and that every chemical process is
governed by certain fixed, interchangeable
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 /; sit
hasn't been chemistry, but something
else beginning with c., viz: chance. Now,
given your ingredients combined in GER
tain manner, and as an absolute result your
bread is just as sure 10 rise as the sun is to
rise in the east. You can't keep it down,
unless you put n milestone on il. / sup
pose, 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 wo
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 anybody, or you are not the
bright woman think you are. So this
week we will make bread every day. OI
course we can't eat il all, but what we don't
want we will give 10 the poor"
And every day 1 sat by the table and
gave Belle instruc ions, while the pretty
hands, which even hard work could not de-
face, nodded the loaves which came out o
the oven snowy within, delicate brown
without, the sweet and odorous staff o.
life. Saturday l left her TO her own devic
es, and l don't believe she blushed more
when Harry proposed 10 her than when he
gave her that highest praise man car
ofler-"this is just as good as my moth
er's. "Poor Harry! what a digestion hi
must have had to begin with, and what 1
beie ndiT, "my mothers bread" is to man,
a young bousekeeper!
So here was one great trouble disposed
of. Like many other troubles in life, |
needed only 10 &C grappled with and it dis
appeared.
But how, in the meantime, did il far
with the order of the house2
Disorder is chronic trouble, ard, lik
many other chronic troubles, sometime
needs sharp alternative to break it up.
Thursday afternoon 1 saw something ii
the parlor which made me sit down ant
think little. The result was note, thu.
DEAR HARRY will you come down t
the house as soon as you can conveniently
In great haste. KITTY"
Down came Harry at pace like the lop
of California horse. Breathless he rush
ed in.
as Belle sick ?"
"No," replied "but come into the pal
lor a moment"
Now that he was there, confess 1 was
little afraid of the result. Men have s
much amour 1'ropre, and do so hate TO b
made ridiculous, that I felt as if ha
drawn the elephant in a rattle and didn
know what to do with it.
"IIarry," said l, severely, "you remen
Der our compact, and the duty of paren
TO set good example?"
could see glimmer of suspicion in h
face. Then made desperate plunge.
"Look over on the sofa. l only sent f
} you TO hang up your overcoat."
Pause, awful TO me, while Harry vibra
} ed between anger and mcrriment. Fina
ly, good fellow that he was, he sat back
/ his chair aud laughed heartily.
f kitty, I'll pay you for this, If l liv
The idea OF getting a man home from h
Office 10 hang up his overcoat! What wi
you bet that you catch me again2"
"Bet! You are demoralizingi ha,
{ lived in New York. and seen Jerome Par
' have been in Saratoga, and heard abol
the races, but have never made a be
! However, just to make up with yo
= Harry, I'll bet the price of that new Chi
set which Belle looked at so longingly Il
t other day."
o "Very WE'LL" said Harry "but you s.