The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1882-09-21

dismayed Della '.Nor Hetty either
except make gingerbread" she
added, with a faint little laugh.
"Hetty beats everybody at that,
grandmother always said"
every well; make gingerbread
then That's your thing to do
said Aunt Polly.
Hetty looked at her with an in
credulous eye.
you're not in earnest are you?"
she said
Il am In dead earnest"
"But, Aunt Polly, gingerbread
Such little thing as that Who
ever heard of a girls doing such a
thing"
'-All the better if they never did.
A new trade has a double chance.
As for the little great things often
come from small beginnings For
tunes have been made out of ginger
bread before now III be bound, or
if not that, out of something no
bigger. No, Hetty, depend upon it,
if your gingerbread is best, folks
Will want it. And if your teaching
or sewing is only second best they
won't. It's the law of human ma
ture, and a very good law, too,
though it cuts the wrong way some
times, like all laws"
Aunt Polly, you're a genius, y
cried Hetty, warmed into sudden
glow by this vigorous common sense.
Il can make good gingerbread, and
it's just as you say, neither OF US
know enough to teach well, and we
are both poor hands at sewing, and
we should have a much better chance
if we tried to do what We can and
not what we can't. Why shouldn' t
L make gingerbread? Dely'd help
me, and if folks liked our things and
bought them, we could live and
keep together. We could make a
kind of shop of this room, cOuldn' [
we? What do you Think"
.'Tisnt bit bad place for such
trade" said Aunt Polly, slowly
measuring the room with her eyes.
Being on a corner is an advantage,
you see; and there's that double
winder on the street gives first-rate
chance to show what you've got to
sell. l never did see no use in that
winder before. My father, be had
it cut for kind of within like, and
we all thought it was notional in
him; but, as they say, keep a thing
long enough and a use'll turn up
It's q sort of a gain for you, too,
having the house so old fashioned.
Folks have 4 hankering for such
things, nOWadays-the Lord knows
WHY hear EN- going on about it
when Pm out tailorin'; calling ugly
things quaint and lovely, because
they're old. Hetty" sudden
inspiratioa-"here's az idea for you,
be quaint Don't try for a shop;
keep the room q room, and make it
as old fashioned looking as you can,
and I'll bet a cookie that your gin
gerbread'll be twice as popular with
one set of folks, and if it's first-rate
the other set who don't
care for old things viii like it just
as well"
What a bracing thing Is a word
in season. Aunt Poly's little seed
Of suggestion grew and spread like
Jacks tabled beanstalk.
Your light biscuits always turn
put well" said Della.
'And my snaps. Grandmother
always liked them so much. And
you're a good hand at loaf bread,
you know. Aunt PolIy-I seem to
smell a fortune in the air. We will
begin at once, just as soon as l can
get a half-barrel of -four and put an
advertisement in the paper"
Hetty had ready wit, and Aunt
Polly's hint as to ''quaintness" was
lot lost upon her. The advertise
nent when it appeared the next day
put one ran thus: after Monday |
next, the Old Time Bakery, corner
Farewell and Martin streets, will be |
to furnish, to order, fresh |
bread, buns, biscuits, and grand
mothers gingerbread, all home |
made"
People smiled over the little notice,
but the wording stuck in their mem /
prizes as odd things will, and more |
than one person went out of his way |
during the next week to take a look |
into the wide, low window, within |
which, on a broad, napkin covered |
shelf, stood rows of biscuits, light 1
and white, buns, each glazed with |
lumber brown, and lOaves of
u ngerbread, whose complexion and !
smell were enough to vouch for their
excellence. Acting ON Aunt Polly 5 |
Hetty had set forth her
wares on plates of the oldest and
oldest pattern which could be found |
in grandmother closet. a queer
tall pitcher fanked them on either
side, and round the windowframe |
she bad twined the long, luxuriant |
shoots Of n pot of ivy. Altogether
the effect was pretty and no one
need be told that the pitchers had |
for years been consecrated to the |
reception of yeast and corks, or that |
the plates had long since been rele- |
gated to kitchen use as too shabby |
for better occasions.
"Hain't We no white chany," re-
marked their first customer, an old |
woman, as she counted out the pen
MES for half a dozen biscuits. 1t
would kind Of set your cakes Off"
"We used what we had replied |
Hetty, automatically. But l hope !
your biscuits'll taste just as good as
if they came off a white plate"
This old woman, twO-others, and !
a little boy, were the only customers
the first day.
..Tisn't bit a good beginning"
declared Della, pouring the money |
received out of an old-fashion china /
which Hetty had I'M
earthed in an upstairs closet, and |
brought down to serve as q till |
Two dozen biscuits, that's twenty
four cents. a loaf of gingerbread and |
about half the buns. That's fifty
three cents in all. What did you
say was the material COST
About seventy cents. But then
we have had our supper and break
70 - ont of them and nearly half the /