Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1885-04-08
TEN BUSHELS.

Mrs. Lyman was in the kitchen su-
perintending dinner. She was but a
young housekeeper, so there was GER
tain amount of anxiety connected with
making even kettle of soup. She
stirred and tasted and put in another
shake of pepper and another pinch Of
salt, and said to her maid of all work,
who stood by watching the process:
II do wish | had an onion to put in
it; soup is not very good without an
onion flavor"
The remark was made more to her
self than to Barbara, whose knowledge
of English was somewhat limited. IL
it had not been, and If she had known
the way and it had not been too late,
she might have gone down town and
bought some onions. AS those obsta-
Giles were all in the way, the soup must
needs go without.
When the six o'clock dinner was
spread in the very prettiest dining-room
that can be imagined, the table glittering
in its new silver, and the soup smoking
in the tureen, the master of the house
"a young man who had only enjoyed
the privilege of sitting at the head OF
his own table for a couple of months,
took it all in, rs his own tastes were ca
pable of doing. The savory odors, the
cheory room, the careful attention to
every detail of comfort and beauty, and
then the slight figure opposite him, an
embodiment of dignity and grace-he
found nothing lacking in it all.
This soup is not quite perfect" the
young wife said, as she began to serve
it, Il had no onions to put in it.
wish you would order some when you
90 down town tomorrow, Phillip; they
are nice just now for boiling, too"
This young couple had compared
views on Browning and Ruskin, but not
on onions. They had long ago dis
cussed poetry, PHILOSOPHERS and art, rs
well rs architecture and house furnish
ings, and they had found hitherto that
their tastes were in most delightful ac-
cord. Mrs. Lyman was not prepared,
therefore, for the frown that contracted
her husbands handsome brows as he
calculated:
"Onions! Don't mention them. Ex-
cuse me from that purchase, please.
They are abominable; not fit for human
beings to eat. They ought to be ban
ished from every respectable table"
81 beg your pardon" Mrs. Lyman
answered, with rising color, "buta all do
not agree in such u sweeping denuncia-
ton. Many of the best physicians con-
slider them most nutritious and health
full"
"Wcll, at all events, shall not have
my house polluted with the vile things.
If there Is anything that reminds one OF
n third-rate clearinghouse, it is to get
n Whit of onions the moment you enter
the front door. It.is vulgar and low.
| can't see how anyone of refined tastes
can touch them. hope you are not
an onion eater, Nettic, because If you
are, l fear you will have to abstain,
can not abide them"
Now Mrs. Annette Hayward Lyman
was exceedingly fond of onions. She
was not of the sort to declare that she
was "passionatcly fond of them," but
she did think nice dish of boiled
onions, pretty white ones, swimming in
hot milk and butter, was just the thing
to go with-stewcd chicken, say. Then
she enjoyed thin slices of raw onions
cut into vinegar; and crisp, green
topped young ores, dipped in salt and
eaten with bread and butter, were Just
| Il
limited that he had special aversion
for that vegetable, she would have de-
clared: 81 will eat no onions while the
world standeth." But to attack them
in this sharp way, to declare them vul'
gar, and, above all, to dictate to hei
what she should or should not eat, as il
he were her master, and to say ''my
housed" 1t was too much, and she
answered in IN icy tone that "she must
beg leave to differ; to her mind the
onion was most delicious vegetable
and she must reserve for herself the
right of choice in this and in Other
matters"
Their first quarrel! And all abou
an onion! What cares Satan whether
1t be an apple or an onion, so that h,
spoil the Edcns.
There were many more words quit,
as pungcnt as onions, and then Their,
fell silence between them that wa.
not broken after Barbara had lighted
the@gas in tho parlor, and drawn tn,
table under the drop-lght, and they
were seated with books and newspapers
There was no reading done, but mucf
ugly thinking. One line of IL ran aftel
this fashion,:
strange that so delicate, refined 4
aature should have taste for that vile
dagrant, odious onion. A wretchet
discovery that his wife should be font
OF that for which he had alwas felt dis.
gust! And evidently she did not mean
20 give them up, not even for his sake
Was she selfish and proud and ,obsti
nate and and high-tcmperedp Had
he been mistaken in her character ant
In her regard for him?
The wife meantime was recalling ar
opinion, long ago expressed by friend
who said that Philip Lyman possessed
q domineering spirit and was bound II
rule all connected with him. She her
self had never believed 1t, but THU
looked like it-wishing her to give NJ
whatever he did not fancy, and limiting
Mat she would be obliCed tn Indead