The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1892-07-16
MOTHERS COOKING.

WO HCn , OOONlVUs
The Plainfeld boys always had
the name OF being smart, and Igness
Lutte Baker was just about the
smartest boy the old town ever
turned out Well, he came by it
naturally. Judge Baker was known
all over western Massachusetts, as
the sage OF Painfeld. and Lute's
mother-she was kellogg before
the Judge married her-she had
more faculty than dozen of your
nowadays, and her cooking was
talked about everywhere; never was
another woman, as folks said, could
cook like Mis- Baker. The boys
Lute's friends-used to hang around
the back porch o. mornings just to
get some OF her doughnuts; she was
always considerate and liberal to
boys. Maybe Lutte wouldn't have
been SO popular if it hadn't been for
these doughnuts, and maybe he
wouldn't have been SO smart if it
hadn't been for all the good things
his mother fed into him. Always
di' believe there was piety and wis
dom in New England victuals.
Lutte vent to Amherst college and
did we'll; and he taught school
winter, for Judge Baker said that
nobody could amount to mrch in
the world unless he'd taught school
a spell. Lute.se on being a lawyer,
and SO presently he went down to
Springfield and studied in Judge
Morris office, and Judge Morris
wrote letter home to the Bakers
once testifying to Lute's probity and
acumen-things that are never heard
tell OF high up in the legal pro-
fession.
How Lutte came to get the western
fever | can't say, but get it he did,
and one winter he up and piked off
to Chicago and there he hung out
his shingle and joined literary
social and proceeded to get rich and
famous. The next spring Judge
Baker fell off the woodshed while he
was shingling it, and 1t Jared him
so he kind of dropped and pined
around spell, and then one day up
and died. Lutte had to come back
home and settle up the estate.
When he went west again he took
wife with him-Emma Cowles that
was Everybody called her EN- for
short), pretty as a picture and as
likely girl as there was in the town
ship. Lutte had always had ham
kering for EN-, and En- never
thought there was another such
young fellow as Lutte; she under
stood him perfectly, having sung in
the choir with him two years. The
young couple went west well pro.
vided.
Lutte and En- went to housekeep
in Chicago. EN- wanted to do her
own work, but Lutte wouldn't hear
to it. so they hired a German girl
that was just over from the vine
yards of the Rhine country.
Lutte, says EN-, Hulda doesn't
know much about cooking.
So l see, says Lutte feelingly.
She's as green as grass; you'll have
to teach her.
Hulda could swing hoe and
WELD spade deity, but of the
cuisine she knew some what less
than nothing. EN- had lots of
patience and pluck, but she found
teaching Hulda how to cook a pre-
cious hard job Lutte was amiable
enough at first; used to laugh it Oft
with a cordial bet that by and by
En- would make a famous cook Of
the obtuse but willing immigrant.
This moral backing buoyed EN- up
considerable, until one evening in
an ungarded moment Lutte express
ed pining for some doughnuts like
those mother makes, and that casual
remark made En- unhappy. But
next evening when Lutte came home
there were doughnuts on the table
beautiful, big, plethoric doughnuts
that fairly reeked with the homely,
delicious sentiment of New England.
Lutte ate one EN- felt hurt.
l guess it's because I've eaten so
much else, explained Lutte, but
somehow or other they don't taste
like mother S.
Next day EN- fed the rest of the
doughnuts to poor man who came
and said he was starving. Thank
you, marin, said he, with his heart
full of gratitude and his mouth full
of doughnuts; l ha'n't had anything
as good as this since l left Connec
ticut, twenty years ago.
That little subt lety consoled EN-,
bnt still she found it hard to bear UP
under her apparent inability to dc
her duty by Lute's critical palate
Once when Lutte brought CoIone
| Ji Thomas home to dinner thay