The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1896-09-04
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
RESIGNATION OF HIS COOK RUF-
FILES HIS SERINITY.
Household Duties Parceled Out
Brings Contentment.

it's dark side, its shadow, and every
shadow is frightened by some COM
pensation-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 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 l carved the
chicken, or the steak, for I am little
careless about those things. She
dident talk much, nor seem to be in a
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
dident 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 che has one fault. She will
quit when she takes q 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 a
week or two or she light not. So we
concluded to go along without cook
for few days and see how it was, and
1T is not SO bnd, after all. 1t nearly
Kills my wife to get up soon, but
like it. In fact, 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 waffles. BY
the time breakfast is ready my wife is
ready and We all enjoy it, and then
her part comes in, for che had rather
wash the dishes than do anything.
She wants to be sure that they aie
clean. And then she churns to he
sure that the hntter is clean. We
cook dinner if we feel like it, and we
don't if we don't. In fact it is a relief
to eat cold lunch these hot days. It
saves work and saves time and expense
and makes digestion easy. My opinion
is that the average family has too much
cooking done, and SO if we have 10 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 q
cook. Then, again l save 81 week in
silver at 16 to l, and if 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. pay that over to my wife and
daughter te keep them reconciled, but
l 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
30 we are getting along splendid while
running this independent line.
But there is no Independent line. II |
is curious and somewhat humiliatiug |
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 a 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 ncces.
sity. Then there is the family doctor.
How could we get along without him?
had to get up In the night and 60 half
a mile for him in a fox trot, and !
feared the little girl would die before
[ got back, but she didn't and he re-
lieved her and relieved our great aux-
iety, too. There is no such thing as
independence in this life, but it is ap-
by those who were raised
to work The boys who can chop |
wood and plow and fit an AK helve to
M ak or repair leak in the roof or
get tack out of shoe, or take off part |
Of tho heel tap or mend a chair or q
window blind, or lay a hearth or put |
In pano OF glass, or do q hundred |
little things about the house and home,
will save many 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 picture on the wall or
make firescrcen or lampshade or a
pillow for the sofa or even put a 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