Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1889-10-04
now LOTTIE HELPED.

house kitchen ON her way to school.
Very pretty and wholesome Lotte Emery
looked as she came lightly tripping down
stairs and across the shaded, orderly dining
room, in her airy suit of nuns yelling and
graceful sun hat knotted about with a wide
blue sash
Early risers were the inmates Of this busy
farm home, and not three quarters of an
hour before lottie had left that same wide,
low ceied kitchen in apple pie order -
! which was her favurite term for scrupulous
neatness and orderly arrangement Of a
room.
Cleaning up after breakfast was always
Lottie's york and so, too, was the care Of
the dining room and chambers. Very sell
dom did the old Townsend clock, perched
ON one end of the kitchen mautel, whir for
eight O'Clock in the long summer mornings
before Lottie's tasks were neatly accom-
plished and she was at liberty to set out on
her half-me walk to school
This morning it wasn't quite eight yet
beds had been aired and made, chambers
and kitchen put to rights, the dining room
| swept and busted fresh flowers picked for
the parlor vases, and she, lunch basket and
book strap in hand, was ready for school
but ON the kitchen threshold she paused in
dismay. Such a looking room Who did
it -
Well, that great stack of milk pans, smear
ed with bonuy-clabher inside and out, that
! LOttie's tired faced mother had Just brought
! up from the milk cellar and piled into the
| sink till lesure-no, not leisure, for who
ever heard Of leisure in "A farmhouse kitchen
| in summer time till she found a hurried
| opportunity to wash them, helped in the
confusion; and that litter Of ash-shavings
by the wood box, which father Emery had
scattered there not ten minutes before, as
he whitfield an ux-guad while he chatted
/ with mother "A moment, added to the
chaos and the uuwashed churn, also from
the milk cellar, with dasher and ladle and
dripping butter paddles tilted across its top
| waiting for those same tireless mother hands
and hot water, added not a little to the dis
orderly state Of affairs and the overturned
box pi red bell pepper, in the open window,
with dirt sitting along the ledge and across
the ilpor--the combined work of a hungry
! furagiug hen and the summer hreeze-help-
ed in the clutter and a big slop by the
sink and a train Of little slops along the
/ floor leading from the well to the water pail
rest ON the sink board told even big Rover
as he Indignantly lifted his clumsy feet from
the Slops 10 track them across the bell pep
pers dirt sitting over the floor, that care
les, Fred had for once brought his mother
pail of water
But this patient, very busy mother, where
was she
y pile Of pie plates thanking the heaped
pan of -four on the long kitchen table, an
other pan Of prepared pumpkin and prepar
ed mixing and cream gave promise that
pies were under way. The cellar door
standing open, and the big dinner-pot noisi-
/ ly iarring its iron cover with imprisoned
steam and flank of corned beef over the
/. -. Il ~.
was in the cellar foraging for vegetables
81 should think mother would stiie, work
ing all the forenoon in this sweltering kitch
en- Lottie exclaimed, reaching for her
sun-umhrela that hung ON the wall
." Better help her little by putting the
kitchen TO rights, - whispered the little voice
that sometimes gives an unwelcome jog to
our thoughts. "Nou will have plenty of
time before school and only think of the
surprise and pleasure it will give her -
\ little Scowl came between Lottie's blue
eyes Its not my work to wash the milk
dishes, and it's not my fault if the kitchen
is all in a clutter. I'm sure put it in apple
pie order not an hour ago''-the little foot
poised over the plank doorstep.
For even Christ pleased not himself"
Why should that Scripture passage flash
into her mind just then the day IS verse
on the little hright.colored calendar that
hung just under the clock. Lotte had read
it with quick glance as she paused in her
dusting TO tear off yesterdays leaf.
But it is SO sitting here, and | have hur-
ried all the morning to finish my work so
that | might walk to school before the sun
gets scorching high in the heavens. Be
sides, mother doesn't expect me to help
her"
Then give her pleasant surprise
- liz
der before she comes in" buzzed the little
voice close at hand.
Pleased not himself
The red letters of the calendar seemed to
glow before Lottie' eyes but it was really
only those red bell-pepperS that had spilled
from the window sill on to the floor.
I'm do it Mother will have her hands
full with the vegetables and the pies and the
dinner. It's pity if | am not willing TO
give her "A little extra lift in the work now
and then
The shade hat went up ON nail with
toss OIL came the dainty cuffs and tiny
rutiled apron, and in place broadly cover
ing the neat schoOl-dress-went on her big
checked apron.
~ hope mother will dress the vegetables
before she comes into the kitchen, and then
| shall have plenty of time to straighten
things before she sees it, thought Iottie,
softly latchng the cellar door that the clat
ter of pans and whisk Of broom might not
reach her mothers ears
shadow fell across the kitchen window,
and Lottie glanced up in time to see her
mother carrying from the roll way basket
of vegetables carefully selected from last
years sand d-packed supplies to the cool
shade of the lilac trees in the back yard
there to dress them for the dinner pot.
R-,,,r,,. at,l Il ,.l,th ,,I ltst ,,a,
how they flew that next half hour
The warped, forked hand of the old clock
pointed the quarter to nine before the iaunty
sun hat come down, Lotte lightly trpped
through the red framed doorway of the
kitchen on her way to school.
4 little later in the day, deep in intrica-
cies of geometry and the bewilderiug dates
Of history, in the cooler temperature of the
breezy school-room, out of mind went
the rememherance of her mornings kind
ness Only once she thought of it, aud that
was in the noon hour when little Johnnie
Andrews contdentially whispered to a class
mate that ina is going 10 have IA billed
dish for supper.
Lottie smiled, thinking of the vegetables
she had seen losing their rough coats in
the shadows of the lilac trees that morning
and 81 wonder what mother said when she
came in and found the revolution in her
kitchen = was the thought that set her
bright eyes dancing as she passed TO her
desk
Dear child God bless the dear child 2"
was Just what her mother said as she enter
, ed the kitchen, heated and tired, weariy
thinking Of the work that must be met be
fore noon.
Oh it was such a help, and SO restful for
that hurried discouraged mother to find her
kitchen in order aud her sink cleared of its
stack Of milk pans
"The dear, dear child 90 l.ottie little
knew how often she was in her mother
thoughts that day and how her loving at
tempt to lift burden from her mother set
: a little bird singing in that heart all day as
! she toed for love lightens labor, and
these mothers never forget never overlook
: or cease to hunger for, expressions of love
= aud sympathy from the dear ones of their
!. household unto whom they have minstered
= increasingly and uncomplainingly but in
many and many home, all too late, this
lovingly expressed sympathy and tender
q, care come
: When the tired feet are still, the hands
crossed in strange whteuess and idleness,
- the sweet lips that never before in all our
lifetime refused to answer us or be dumb tu
our entreaties mute and cold then all too
I late, we wake TO her worth, and bitterly
"a ] ratrrat tVA hal upt 'tunaIa mnra nf ulptlpr'