The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-11-02
A DAKOTA LOVE STORY.
INTRODUCING A YANKEE WHO
COULDN'T EXACTLY COOK
And al Interestingly Selfreliant
Widow Who COuld-An Episode in
the Rough Life on tne Wide Wheat
Fields OF The Dakota Territory.
.CUgTiGhEj

tAe Rough Life on tne Wide Wheat
! Fields OF the Dakota Territory.
! jCopTiGhtj
| NV York, Oct. Sl.-The Yale man
tilted back in his chair and knocked the
ashes from a cigar that had been patriotic
ally rolled from Connecticut tobacco.
| Yes. he said, "~hen I read about the
opening ofIhess reservations and the hard
ships Of the boomers think Of my owe ex-
perience out there in Dakota. Pioneering
| Is rough business. and far west farming
Is a kind ofa romance that a man who is
built with anything like the ordinary ca
pacity for human enjoyment doesn't care to
keep any longer than be has to.
! Not but that had pretty reasonable
sort OF a time,n said the Y ale man, gazing
reaectively at the Connecticut cigar; but
hustling at a high pressure with a level
stretch Of landscape is a lonesome form OF
| felicity, and after a time you get ready 70
make q bad break for liberty"
| How did you come to do itF' asked.
| Well, got restless in the east, wasn't
making money fast enough. and rather felt
as II would like 10 sample the woolv
west. don't know that l thought of going
out and growing up with the country. I'm
afraid / expected quick profits in mine, and
| felt that would let the thing last as long
as &c might l struck up partnership with
| another eastern man and we went out there
near Snake river and bought up 700 acres
| about fifteen miles from q town.
| Ut was q rather neat ranch we started in
on. We put down 4j0 acres in wheat, $50
ia corn kept 100 acres fallOw each season
for seed stock the following season. You
may be sure this meant hustling In the
planting and gathering times we had a big
gang or 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
Did you cookr'
| Yes, aud that's what | started out to
| tell you about. Il wasn't 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 SIX
teen men there, it was rough on me-and a
| little rougher on them.
"Of course we started out to hire a cook
But we soon discovered that this was going
TO be no easy matter. You see we were a
| good ways from any other ranch, and the
| women were timid. They heard that two
| bachelors were keeping house there and
they fought shy Of the place. No amount
OF wages was any inducement, and we
began TO get discouraged. About the time
/ i u
cook and maid Of all work, my partner,
who was a guileleS man Of no sagacity
| whatever as regarus women, drove
down from the town with cook He was
radiant with satisfaction and helped her
| out OF the wagon With an ELUSIVE gallantrv
| that amused me. Now, | had necessarily
! spent few days in town and l had kent
my eyes open; and when l was introduced
TO his cook recognized her as a young lady
whom had caught right Of before.
II took my partner aside Bill said,
| don't you know any better than that
| "'W hat did you meant he asked with a
| puzzled look
do you know anything about herr
! " Not much, he said, but l guess she
| can COOK well enough
"'Bih,' said, take her back. She won't
do. It's hard to live on my cooking, but we
must at least try TO be respectable here
1t was blow TO him, for he had been
| much elated at the home-like prospect.
And he drove her away again over the If
teen miles Of prairie road.
After that we bhckled down again to
the reality Of things and went on with the
cooking Before lett the east | had made
certain inquiries from an excellent house
keeper and successful cook, my cousins
wife. and had entered up in a little book
certain recipes this ingenious lady had given
me. At the line OF writing these things
down l had thought of no particular diff
Guilty in executing the instructions Any
thing 50 specific seemed beyond the proba-
bility of confusion. The worst / thought
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 | started in on
some things little faucier than the hard
fare we had been having.
II won't disguise the fact that l calcu-
| iafa1 m Der RI nd ba
men. sud nothing about the book aud
started IN one mornIng on a certain kind Of
cakes with which | remembered that my
Cousins wife always made a great hit
With the instructions before me proceeded
50 follow verbatim every point of direction.
| Wien | had reached what seemed to me-
about the middle of the job | realized that
l was stuck hopelesSly stuck. | read the
recipe over again, tried 1t backward and
| forward made few experiments and gave
the thing up il despair Something or
other had been left out of that recipe, and
of course it was utterly beyond the pale of
probability that l would find out what that
something was.
"Ac this hIncture | heard voice outsice
and vent to the door. There l saw farm
wagon and horse. At the horses head was
a woman. She was giving the animal a
drink.
"When the woman saw me she nodded in
Tue Tree western way, ana SAID: Tan 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 him
self undressed'
Are you going TO town" | asked
es,' said she. Got some things to
buy for the farm
"'Can you cook 2 said I.
Considerable said sine. looking at me
interrOgadvely
"'Well,' said |, Pm IN a regular hole
here about some cooking, and if you could
just give a lift on it I'll drive to town for
you and get thess things
Its bargain she said; and so the
thing was ARA pged. ! fixed the harness,
drove to town, did her buyi1g, aud when l
came back that blessed woman had brought
order out Of chaos, and finished up by Civ
ing ms 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. saw her again
the following week or so, and then IL began
to dawn upon me that she was a very pretty
woman, and when / became as much inter-
ested in her as this conclusion NAV imply,
] 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