The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-04-01

| VIC uduuS over UlldI klUCueD TduB6-yeS, Z
slow, constant martyTdOm that conscien
tiOus wife willingly endured for years in
her enthusiastic determination to do heI
duty by Lutte. Doughnuts, chicken pies,
boiled dinners, layer cakes, soda bis
/ cults, flapjaeks, fish balls, baked beans,
squash pies, corned beef hash, dried-ap
pie sauce, currant wine, succotash, brown
bread-hOw vigorously En- toiled over
them, only to be rewarded with some
cruel reminder of how mother" used to
do these things! 1t was terrible; a
| tedious martyrdom.
Lute-mind you-Lute was not will
fully cruel; no, he was simply and If.
remediably a needless idiot of man,
| just as every married man is for spell
at least. But it broke Ems heart all the
same.
Lute's mother came to visit them when
their first child was born, and she lifted
great deal of trouble off the patient
wife. Old Mrs. Baker always liked En-
had told the minister thee years ago
that En- would make Lutte good Chris
tian wife. They named the boy Moses,
after the old judge who was dead, and
old Mrs. Baker said he should have his
grandpa'S watch when he got to be 81.
Old Mrs, Baker always stuck by EN-;
maybe she remembered how the old
judge had talked once, on time about
his mothers cooking. For all married
men are, as have said, idiotically cruel
about that sort of thing. Yes, old Mrs.
Baker braced up EN- wonderful drought
a lot of dried catnip out West with her
for the baby; taught EN- how to make
salt-rising bread; told her about stewing
things and brOiling and roasting things;
showed her how to tell the real Yankee
Goldfish from the counterfeit-oh, she
Just did En- lots Of good, did old Mrs.
Baker,
The rewards OF virtue may be slow in
coming. but they are sure to come.
Ems three boys-the three bouncing
boys that came to En- and Lute-those
three boys waxed fat and grew up bois-
ferrous, blatant appreciators of their
mothers cooking. The way those boys
did eat mothers dougnuts! And
mothers pie-wow! Other boys-the
neighbors bOys-came around regularly
in troops, batalions, armies, and like
consuming fire licked up the wholesome
viands which BINS skill and liberality
provided for her own boys enthusiastic
playmates. And all those boys--there
must have been million of 'em-were
living, breathing, vociferous testimon-
ials to the unapproachable excellence of
Ems cooking.
Lutte got into politics and they elected
him to the Legislature. After the cam
paign, needing rest, he took it into his
head to run down East to see his mother;
he had not been back home for eight
years. He took little Moses with him.
They were gone about three weeks.
Grandma Baker had made great prepare
tions for them; had cooked up enough
to last them all winter, and four plump,
beheaded, well-plucked, acknowledged
pulets hung stiff and solemn like in the
chill pantry off the kitchen, awaiting
the last succulent scene of all.
Lutte and the little boy got there late
of an evening. The dear old lady was
so glad to see them the love that beamed
from her kindly eyes well nigh melted
the glass in her silver bowed specs. The
table was spread in the dining-rOOm; the
sheet-irOn stove sighed till it seemed like
to crack with the heat of that hard
wood fire.
''Why, Lutte, you amt eatin' enough
to keep fly alive" demonstrated old
Mrs. Baker, when her son declined a sec
ond doughnut; land what ails the
child?'' Why, when you was his age,
Lutte, seemed as if 1 couldn't cook
doughnuts fast enough for yOur'
Lutte explained that both he and his
little boy had eaten pretty heartily OH
the train that day. But all the time of
their visit there, poor old Grandma Ba- ..
ker wondered and worried because they
didn't eat enOugh-seemed to her as if
western folks hadn't the right kind of
apetites. Even the plump pullets, serv-
ed only In stole that had made Mrs.
Baker famed throughout those dis
eliminating parts-even those pullets
failed to awaken the expected and prop
er enthusiasm in the visitors.
Home again in Chicago. Lutte drew his
chair up to the table with an eloquent
sigh of relief. AS for little Moses, he
his delight
Chicken pie!" he cried, gleefully,
and then he added a soulful wow!' as
his eager eyes fell upon platetul of hot,
voluptuous dOughnuts.
Eyes, we are glad to get back" said
Lutte.
"But am afraid" suggested En-,
that Gran'ma's cooking has
spoiled you"
Little Moses (bless him)!, howled an
indignant, wrathful remonstrance
Gran ma can't cook worth a cent?
said he.
En- expected Lutte to be dreadfully
but he wasn't
81 wouldn't let her know it for all the |
world" remarked Lutte. but mother
has lost her grip on cooking. At any
rate, her cooking isn't what it used to be;
it Inns changed"
Then En- came bravely to the rescue.
mo, Lutte" says she, and she meant it,
your mothers cooking hasn't changed, 4
but you have. The man has grown
away from the boy, and the tastes, the
ways, and the delights of boyhood have |
no longer any fascination for the man.
Maybe you're right" said Lutte. "At |
any rate, I'm free to say that your cook
ing beats the world.G
Good for Lutte! Virtue triumphs and
my true love story ends. But first an
explanation to cOncinnate my nara
tive.
l should never have known this true
story if Lutte himself hadn't told it to
me at the last dinner of the Sons of New
it to me right before En-.
that dear, little martyred wife of his.
And / know by the lOve-light in Ems
eyes that she was glad that she had en-
dured the martyrdOm for Lute's sake.
Chicago Daily News.
BURGLAR CAPTURED.
This morning about two o'clock. John
Wood the well.knOyn nlumhar Iybn m