Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1894-11-02
THE OLD OAK CHEST,
BY HELEN FORREST GRAVES.

She was all alone.
1t was quite new experience to
Dotty, this housekeeping business.
She had theorized a good deal over
Handy Housekeepers, "Compre-
hensive Cook Books and Home
Guides, but she never had any prac-
tical experience before, and now, up
in these wild woods, the helm of do.
nestle affairs was unexpectedly placed
In her hands, and hers. alone.
She liked the woods and the river;
the meadows all starred with daisies
and the long, low farmhouse, with its
red brick chimney-stacks its treliises
all bending with the weight of vines;
the old stone-walled garden, where
ripening currants hung like ruby fin
gers, and the green gooseberries seem
ed to absorb the very sweetness of the
sunshine into their translucent hearts.
To her mind it was deal nicer than
the city flat, with the milkman Yell
ing, the hand-organ droning, the
everlasting clouds of dust. And to-
day, when Aunt Thems wanted to 90
to hear her fayorite elder hold forth
at camp-meeting, Dotty volunteered
to stay and get the dinner for Reuben
and Rankin, her two tall cousins.
''La, child" said Aunt Themis,
''you don't know nothin' about cook
in'i"
"But indeed / dol" asseveratc9
see as well as yotI, Auft ss.s
watched the way you did it last Satur
day; and | know l can turn out
irst-class cherry tart. . Az
"Well," said Aunt Themis,
doubtfully, "anyhow, there's p 10 T
of good rye bread and new milk,
nobody needn't to starye on /
And be sure, Dotty, you keep o
doors bolted, and don't let tramps ~
and blow the dinner horn at twelve
precisely, and don't forget that brood
of young turkeys in the barn cham
Der and don't on no account leave
the milk-room door open, for that
new cat is the thievingest creeter you
ever did see.
"Oh, I'll take care!' said Dotty,
with the reckless audacity of ignor-
ance. Everything shall be quite
quite right. You'll see, Aunt The
mis-.
And after the old lady had depart
ed, with many misgivings, Dotty drew
long breath of rapture, and execut-
ed an impromptu dance in the middle
of the kitchen floor.
"Only think, she said, addressing
the cat in the corner, ''the whole
house all to myself Won't l get
superb dinner for Reuben and Ran
kin? I'll make a meringue tart, and
ice cream, and vanilla puffs, and eho-
colate cake, and I'll try my hand at
mock-turtle soup, and cream candy,
and black coffee. And how l will sur
prise theml And as for boiling the
doors, how utterly ridiculous 1t would
be to shut out the beautiful sunshine,
and the butterflies, AMI the sweet
scented air This house always smells
like blue mould when Aunt Themis is
around; and of course nobody could
get in while | am here. !"
So Dotty skinned the pans for
cream to make the ice cream, aud
stirred up the vanilla puffs, and grated
chocolate for the cake, and put the
two fat, little white chickens into the
pot for the fricassee; and then, feel
ing herself every inch housekeeper,
she frisked away up stairs to make the
beds.
But there was no question of beds,
when once she was up stairs. where a
huge old chest of some dark stained
wood stood open near the landing.
"The old oak chestr'' cried Dotty,
who was as full of romance as white
clover bloom is of sweetness. "And
to think that Aunt Themis never let
me look into it beforei"
There was nothing very particular,
after all, in 1t, only stuffy-smeliing
blankets, moth-eaten gown or two,
the brass buttoned military coat in
which Uncle Amaniah-dead these ten
years rs--had been wont to rally on
training days.
"Pshawl" said Dotty. aThere
/ ought to have leen a forgotten will
there, or a skeleton at the very least
It's humbug, that old chest -
just as this reflection pas
through her mind, a whining. n,
voice sounded at III, bottom Of
little wooden stairway, which W.
up like corkscrew from below.
"Any old clothes to exchang