The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-09-04
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
RESIGNATION OFms COOK RUE
FLEs HIs SERENITY.
Household Duties Pareeled Out
Brings Coutentment.

HenHahou-homo rift IA 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 tho kitchen as clean as a parlor,
and the knives and the silyerware al.
ways bright and the dishes shining,
and there was q napkin spread al tho
head Of the table TO keen me from soil
ing the damask when ] carved tho
chicken, OF the steak, for / am q little
careless about those things. She
dident talk much, nor seem to be ia n
hurry. and she was kind to the grand
children and made them little biscuits.
She took good care Of the COW and
kept me ia iee-cold butter-milk aud
made enough butter to do MS when We
didont have company. Sometimes sho
brought as 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 O 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 OF she might not SO We
concluded to 60 along without cook
for a few days and see how il was, and
it is not so bad, after oil. It nearly
kills my wife to get up soon, but l
like it. In fact, l can't lie abed after
sunrise, and so We paroelled ont the
work to suit US oil. william must fire
up the stove and put on the hominy
and grind the coffee and prepare TIE
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 wafdes. 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 a relief
to eat a cold lunch these hot Days. II
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
10 the bright side of doing without a
cook, Then, again I save 50 a week in
silver at Is 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. I pay that over to my wife and
daughter te keep them Feconciled, but
I verify believe that they would be glad
to see Mrs. Sicily Minis back here to-
morrow morning. They hired a color
ed neighboT 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 Vanderbuts and
Astors were wrecked OF 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 neces-
sity. Then there is the family doctor.
How could we get along without him
1t was only few months ago when
had to get up in the night and go halt
a mile for him in 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 anx-
iety, too. There is no such thing as
independence in this life, but it is APP
proximated by those who were raised
to work. The boys who can chop
wood and pillow and fit an OK helve to
an ak or repair leak in the roof or
get tack out OF shoe, or take off part
Of the heel tap or mend chair or q
window blind, or lay a hearth or put
in pane of glass, or do hundred
little things about the house and home,
will save many dollar where others
would send for a 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 a good meal when it is neces-
sary and hang picture on the wall or
make a firescreen or lampshade or q
| pillow for the sofa or even put a new
court of paint on the mantle will make
good wives and good mothers. You won'i
find many of these boys and girls in
high life nor ia what is called society,