The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-12-15
He Welded THE COOK.

LII w bDDhD L LII OOONI
The Yale man tilted back in his chair
and knocked the ashes from a cigar that
had been periodically rolled from Con-
necticut tobacco. Yes" he said, when |
read about the opening of these reservations
and the hardships of the boomers, think
OF my own experience out there in Dakota.
Pioneering is a rough business, and far
West farming is kind of romance that
man who is built with anything like Ordi-
nary capacity for human enjoyment doesn't
care TO keep any longer than he has to.
mot but that l had a pretty reasonable
sort of time, but hustling at high pressure
with a level stretch of landscape is a lone
some form of felicity, and after a time you
get ready to make bad break for liberty"
How did you come TO do it?''
well, ! got restless in tile East, wasn't
making money fast enough, and rather felt
as if / would like to sample the woolly
West. l don't know that l thought of going
out and growing up with the country. Pm
afraid l expected quick profits in mine, and
! felt that l would let the thing last as long
as it might lStruck up partnership with
another Eastern man aud we went out there
near Snaks River and bought up 200 acres
about fifteen miles from town.
IL " as p IdtleI neat lAuGi We SldTleu III
on. We put down $40 acres IN wheat, $50 iR
corn, and kept 10 acres fallow each season
for seed stock the following season. 4Ou
may be sure this meant hustllng. In the
planting ana gathering times we had big
gang Of men working for US and we couldn't
wear boiled shirts very much ourselves. We
had to do all sorts of UNEXPECTED things.
For me the most unexpected thing was the
cooking" 81,
did you coOk%
asN~ a .. 7 4
you about. 1t wasn't a very hard job when
only my partner and l were On hand in the
middle of the summer; but in the heavy
season, when We had fifteen or sixteen men
there It was rough on me-and little
rougher on them.
"Of course we started out to hire cook
But We soon discovered that this was going
70 be no easy matter. You see we were
good ways from any other ranch, and the
women were timid. They heard that two
bachelors were keeping nome there and
they fought shy of the place. No amount of
wages was any induccment, and We began
TO get discouraged. About the time we were
ready to give up hope of getting cook and
maid OF all work, my partner, who was a
gulleless man OF no sagacity whatever as
regards women. drove down from the
town with a cook. lie was radiant with
satisfaction and helped her out OF the
wagon with ian elusive gallantry that
amused me. Now, l had necessarily spent
open; and when | was introduced to his
crok l recognized her as a young lady
whom l had caught sight of before.
81 took my partner aside, BILL l said,
don't you know any better than that%
What do you meanY he asked with a
puzzled look.
DO you know anything about her?'
Not much, he said, but l guess she
can cook well enough
BILL l said, take her back. She won't
It'S I'd tn live on NJ pn0Eiug I'm
must al lest try u be respectable here
- 1t Was a blow to him, Tor he had been
much elated at the home-like prospect. And
he drove her away again over the fifteen
miles of prairie road.
"After that we bucked down again to the |
reality of things and | went on with the
cooking. Before | left the East had made
ceIt tain Inquiries from an excellent house
keeper and successful cook. my cousins
wife, and had entered up in little book
certain recipes that ingenious lady had given
me. At the time of writing these things
down l had thought of no particular diff
Guilty in executing the instructions. Any
thing so specific seemed beyond the proba-
biity of confusion. The worst | thought !
OF was, even by any chance, having to make
use of the recipes. After the incident
which | have just told you about ! got out
this book and looked it over. Then l
started in on some things little fancier
than the hard fare we mad been having.
Il wont disguise the fact that / calculated
upon astonishing my partner and the men.
said nothing about the book, and started
in one morning on certain kind OF cakes,
with which | remembered that my cousins
vile always made great hit. With the in
structions before me | proceeded TO follow
verbatim every point of direction. When
had reached what seemed to me about the
middle Of the job | realized that l was
stuck-hOpelessly stuck. l read the recipe
over again, tried 1t backward and forward,
made few experiments, and gave the thing
up IN despair. Something or other had been
left out of that recipe, and of course it was
utterly beyond the pale OF probability that
would find out what that something was
At this iuncture l heard voice outside
and went to the door. There l saw farm
wagon and horse. At the horses head was
woman: She was giving the animal a
drink. When the woman saw me she
nodded in the free western way and said
Can you give me little help with this
harness? They dressed this beast up down
there, indicating the southern run of the
road, but somehow the darned thing seems
TO be getting himself undressed.'
Are you going to town? | asked
Yes, said she; got some things to buy
for the farm
"'Can you cook p said |.
Considerable said she. looking at me
interrogatiVely.
"'Well,' said l, I'm in a regular hole here
about some cooking. and if you could just
give me lift on il III drive to town for you
and get these things
IT'S bargain she said, and so the
thing was arranged. l fixed the harness,
drove to town, did her buying, and when /
came back that blessed woman had brought
order out OF chaos, and finished up by CIV
ing me some mighty valuable pointers on
the general topic Of cooking. 1t seems there
was little something left out of the cake
recipe, but had also turned some process
upside down and seriously modified the
proper sequence of the process.
The woman got into her wagon and
drove away to the south. l saw her again
The following week or so and then it began
TO dawn upon me that she was very pretty
woman, and when | became as much in
terested In her as this conclusion may imply
L was glad that she stopped long enough to
give me some more points on cooking. In
fact, once or twice after that she planned to
stop and cook for me while l drove to
town for her and did buying"
"How rOmanticW
Yes, 1t was; but / would rather have
hung around and spent more time receiving
instruction. AS 1t was my partner got in
the habit Of dropping in while was doing
the buying. My partner is a very attractive
man. VIII tell you at once what you must
want to know, that she was a widow. 1t
isn't every man who will confess his interest
him."
"To have carried out the romance YOU
should have married her."
well, so far as the romance was con-
cerned, that necessity was fulfilled by the
fact that my partner married her. Very in
teresting wasn't it?"
For your partner"
You see she owned big piece of land
to the south, and she leased that at a snug
Inquire when they were married. We had
nne cooking then, can tell you. 1t would
Just have spoiled me for any more rough
ing. But somehow felt as if it was rather
crowded here. l felt In the way. And SO
one Tall got ont with my share of the
pr"nts ON very successful crop and very
generous sum my partner paid me for my
Interest in the lind. L cleared several thou
sands on the lit lie venture. but nv partner
'aptured that girl" VICTOR SIMS.
Trying to Fix the Case.
Lizzie Rose had her preliminary hearing