The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-10-31
INTERESTING SKETCH.
THE OLD OAK CHEST.


She was all alone
1t was quite new experience to Dotty,
this housekeeping business. She had theo-
rized good deal over +" Handy House.
keepers" Comprehensive Cook Books u
and . Home-Guides, but she never had
any practical experience before. And now,
up in these wild woods, the helm of domes.
bic affairs was unexpectedly placed in her
hands, and hers alone.
She liked the woods and the river; the
meadows all starred with daisies and the
long, low farmhouse, with its red brick
chimney stacks; its trellises all bending
with the weight of vines the old stone
walled garden, where ripening currants
hung like ruby fingers, and the green goose.
berries seemed to absorb the very sweetness
Of the sunshine into their translucent hearts.
To her mind it was q deal nicer than the
city-fat, with the milkman yelling, the
hand-organ droning, the everlasting clouds
of dust And to-day, when Aunt Themis
wanted to go to hear her favorite elder hold
forth at eamp-meeting, Dotty volunteered
to stay and get the dinner for Reuben and
Rankin, her two tall cousins
La, child /" said Aunt Themis, "you
ion't know nothin' about cookin'.n
But indeed I do" asseverated Dotty.
81 can make a chicken-fricassee as we'll as
you, Aunt Themy. l watched the way you
did it last Saturday and know can turn
out a frst-class cherry
Well, said Aunt Themis little doubt
fully, anyhow, there's plenty of good rye
bread and new milk, and nobody needn't to
starve on that. And be sure, Dotty, you
teep the doors boited, and don't let tramps
in, and blow the dinner-horn at twelve
precisely, and don't forget that brood of
young turkeys in the barn-chamber and
don't on no account leave the milk-room
door open, for that new cat is the thieving-
est creeter you ever did see.n
"Oh, I'll take care !" said Dotty, with
the reckless audacity of ignorance. Every
hing shall be quite-quite right You'll
see, Aunt Themis.
And after the old lady had departed with
many misgivings, Deity drew long breath
of rapture, and executed an impromptv
dance in the middle of the kitchen floor.
Only think ~ she said, addressing the
cat in the corner" the whole house all to
myself Won't l get q superb dinner for
Reuben and Rankin III make me,5a,0ue
tart, and ice-cream, and vanilla puffs, and
chocolate cake, and I'll try my hand al
mock-turtle soup, and cream candy, and
black coffee! And how l will surprise
them And as for boiling the doors, how
utterly ridiculous it would be to shut out
the beautiful sunshine, and the butterflies,
and the sweet-scented air This house al
ways smells like blue-mould when Aunt
Themis is around and of course nobody
could get in while am here ~
So Dotty skinned the pans for cream to
make the ice-cream, and stirred up the va
nilla puffs, and grated chocolate for the
cake, and put the two fat, little, white
chickens into the pot for the fricassee and
then, feeling herself every inch house.
keeper, she trisked away up stairs to make
the beds.
But there was no question of beds, when
once she was up stairs, where n huge old
chest of some dark-stained wood stood open,
near the landing.
The old oak chest !" cried Dotty, who
vas as full of romance as white-clover
bloom is of sweetness "And to think that
Aunt Themis never let me look into it
before ~
There was nothing very particular, after
al tR.f n,,Ix at,1ffx all bats
mot eaten gown or two, the brass-button-
ed military coat in which Uncle Amaniah---
dead these ten years--had been won't to
rally" on training days.
% Pshaw !" said Dotty. "There ought to
have been forgotten will there, or skele.
ton at the very least It's a humbug, that
old chest |"
just as this reflection passed through her
mind, a whining, nasal voice sounded at the
bottom of the little wooden stairway, which
wound up like a corkscrew from below.
ANY old clothes to exchange for beauti-
full china vases, ladyp Any cold victuals
for poor MANI"
He was q stalwart, black proved fellow,
"As~< '&AAss&Doo SAaerA4Ao oJOo utid ttitbci Gu
velveteen suit and Dotty's heart stood still
With terror for second.
Oh, if she had only obeyed her Aunt
Theniis and locked up those doors
No I" she said, shortly. Go away ="
Don't be hard ON poor fellow, miss 4"
whined the man.
And Dotty was quite certain that she saw
the spout of Aunt Themis' old solid-silver
cream-jug protruding from The flaps of his
ragged velveteen pocket. At the same mo-
ment, he began ascending the stairs with
insolent deliberation.
In an instant all the doubts, the breads,
the possibilities, the horrors of the situation,
glanced across Dottys mind.
Reuben and Rankin were in the distant
meadow cutting grass the tin-horn, by
means of which she usually summoned
them, was hanging up down stairs at the
back of the ktchen-door.
Not q neighbor lived within sight or call.
And here she was at this stealthy-faced
brute's mercy. Would he gag her9 Would
he murder? What was to become of Aunt
II