The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-12-27
Plcked.Up Dinners.

EVERY woman who has kept house
has had more or less "picked-up'' din
ners.
There comes day when you are un-
usually busy. The forenoon slips away
before you know it, and you resolve on
a picked-up dinner.
What is there in the housep You
make q mental inventory of the con-
tents of your larder. A plate of cold
roast, q slice or two of corned beef, a
dish of cold baked beans, some toast, q
few cookies, a good supply Of bread
and buttcr-wen, you guess, with a
cup of coffee and some pickles, you can
make out. There is nobody but your
self and Charles, and surely there will
be enough for only two.
And Charles has SO often told you
that he could live on your smiles for q
week. The dear boy!
OF course, you haven't been married
long or you would not "take any
stock in any such nonsense as that.
For no man, be he ever SO loving and
loyal, but what at dinner-time would
prefer some good roast beef and vege-
tables, with pudding and other fix
ings, to all the female smiles in the
world. 1t was said that Lord Byron
could not bear to see q woman eat, and
that he had great horror of a person
with healthy appetite; but we will
venture to say that If the author of Don
Juan had been without his dinner for q
couple of days, he would have filled his
stomach before he would have basked
in the smiles of heautv.
When your table is set, it does look q
little meager, and you are glad that it
rains slightly, for there will not be
likely to be anybody in.
You lay the cold meat around then
on the plate, so as to make all the show
possible, and look upon the discovery
of five doughnuts in the jar as god
send, and you add glass of jelly, and
sit down to wait for Charles.
Directly you hear his step, and-oh,
horrors! There is another step to be
heard, too.
Perhaps it is the ice-man. You seize
on the blessed idea, and peep through
the blinds. No, it is a stranger, tall
and dignifed, with a tall hat and silk
umbrella.
You grow cold all over. Company
to a picked-up dinner!
You rush up the back stairs to put on
a clean collar and brush out your
crimps, and take off your sweeping
cap, and all the time you are thus en-
gagged you can hear Charles calling
you: "Sarah Jane! Sarah Jane! where
are your
Flushed and hot, you 60 down to be
presented to "my particular friend
and college chum, Mr.. $685.
The very man that Charles has told
you SO much about, as being SO ex-
tremely fastidious, and such lover of
good living!
Mr.. $3.50 is bland and smiling. De-
lighted to see Charles wife. Had ex-
pected to see prodigy. Was not dis
appointed. The half was never told,
etc.
With many misgivings, you lead the
way to the dining-room. Mr.. So-So's
nose goes up as he surveys the board.
Charles face grows black as thunder
cloud. Mr.. $3.50 declines cold meat,
he doesn't care for the beans, he thinks
he'll not take any doughnuts. He had
late breakfast-not any of the jelly,
thank you.
And he goes away after dinner, with.
out asking you to play, when before
dinner it was spoken of, and he had ex.
pressed himself charmed to be at last
able to hear the playing Of one Of
whose artistic talent he has heard Sc
much. .
Now, is there any more Notifying
situation for housekeeper to be placed
in? leave it for the ladies to answer
They all know how it is, but the mer
do not, and they can never be made te
understand it, either. It is one of the
things which the masculine nature
despite its boosted astuteness and acute
ness, can never be brought'to compre.
bend. - Kate Thorn, in N. Y WeeEly