The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-09-10
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
RESIGNATION OF HIS COOK RUIZ
FILES HIS SERINlTY.


pensaton-some rift in the clouds
that still makes life worth living. The
cook has quit, and thought from the
family talk that the bottom had drop
ped out, for she was a good cook and
kept the kitchen as clean as a parlor,
and the knives and the silverware al
ways bright and the dishes shining,
and there was napkin spread at the
head of the table to keep me from soil
ing the damask when I carved the
chicken, or the steak, for I am little
careless about those things. She
dident talk much, nor seem to be in q
hurry. and she was kind to the grand
children and made them little biscuits.
She took good care of the COW and
kept me IN ice-cold butter-milk and
made enough butter to do us when we
dldent have company. Sometimes she
brought US some green corn or some
butterbeans from her own garden, and.
take her all in all, she was the best SER
want we have had since the war.
But she has one fault. She will
quit when she takes notion-when
the spirit moves her-and you never
know when it is going to move her.
She said she was tired and I reckon
she was. She might come back in
week or two or she might not. So we
concluded to go along without cook
for few days and see how it was, and
it is not SO bad, after all. It nearly
kills my wife to get up soon, but I
like it. In fact, 1 can't lie abed after
sunrise, and SO we parcelled out the
work to suit us all. William must fire
up the stove and put on the hominy
and grind the coffee and prepare the
ham. or the breakfast bacon, or the
beefsteak, and then call one of the
girls to make the biscuit and fry the
battercakes or bake the waff1es. By
the time breakfast is ready my wife is
ready and we all enjoy it, and then
her part comes in, for she had rather
wash the dishes than do anything.
She wants to be sure that they are
clean. And then she churns to be
sure that the butter is clean. We
cook dinner if we feel like it, and we
don't if We don't. In fact it is relief
to eat cold lunch these hot days. It
saves work and saves time and expense
and makes digestion easy. Ny opinion
is that the average family has too much
cooking done, and so if We have no cook
and have to do the work ourselves, there
will be less done and less to surfeit
ourselves with, and we will have better
health and sleep better and snore less
and feel brighter in the morning. This
is the bright side of doing without a
cook. Then, again save So week in
silver at Is to l, and if a penny saved
is two pence gained, as DR.. Franklin
says, then we are ahead at the rate of
81 week. That's big lot of money
now. I pay that over to my wife and
daughter te keep them reconciled, but
verify believe that they would be glad
to see Mrs. Sicily Minis back here to-
morrow morning. They hired color
ed neighbor to milk the COW and some-
times to kill and dress a chicken, and
so we are getting along splendid while
running this Independent line.
But there is no independent line. It
Is curious and somewhat humiliating
to think how dependent we are upon
one another. If the Vanderbilts and
Astors were wrecked at sea and cast on
an island they would perish to death
within week. Dick Wilson wouldn't,
for he was raised in the woods and
would soon grabble up something.
We are dependent on the butcher and
baker and grocer for our daily sup
plies and they are dependent upon the
farmers who raise them and on their
customers who buy them. Even the
salt they sell us is an absolute necss-
sity. Then there is the family doctor.
How could we get along without him?
1t was only few months ago when I
had to get up in the night and go half
a mile for him in a fox trot, and I
feared the little girl would die before
l got back, but she didn't and he re-
lieved her and relieved our great anx-
iety, too. There is no such thing as
independence in this life, but it is ap-
proximated by those who were raised
to work. The boys who can chop
wood and plow and fit an ak helve to
an ak or repair a leak in the roof or
get tack out of shoe, or take off part
of the heel tap or mend a CHAIR or
window blind, or lay hearth or put
in pane of glass, or do hundred
little things about the honss and home,
will save many q dollar where others
would send FOR man and lose it. The
girls who have learned to cut and fit
and make their own garments, and
those OF their younger sisters and who
can cook good meal when it is neces-
sary and hang a picture on the wall or
make frescreen or lampshade or a
pillow for the sofa or even put new
court of paint on the mantle will make
good wives and good mothers. You won't
find many of these boys and girls in
high life nor in what is called society,
and the danger is that if misfortune
comes in these perilous times and
riches take wings and fly away these
children of the rich will be utterly
helpless.