The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-08-29
as--635e-e----
TROUBLES OF A HOSTESS.
Why 1t Is Inconvenient to Have a
Holiday Come on Saturday.

1t is inconventent io have a national
( holiday come on Saturday. Especially if
one happens to be a householder. For
the, groceries close at 10 or Il o'clock,
ana In hot weather with. only an ordinary
| sized refrigerator. the problem of housing
provisions for, Fourth of July dinner, a
fourlh OF July supper, Sunday dinner
ana sunday tea becomes q question of
inches and ice. And he,problem is COM
/ plicated by the arrival of kilograms and
! unexpected guests.
| Last Saturday morning Mrs. Wilcox
/ welcomed two guests. one of them eX-
| pected, the other one not. Still dinner
/ prepared for six will do for seven. Shortly
after they came she received telegram
/ from some presumably dear friends an
nounclng their arrival in the city on an
, evening train and giving the name of
llIelr hotel. he telegram required some
some sort of answer. So, Mrs. Wilcox
called up their hotel that evening, found
them there and asked the two of them
out to Sunday night tea before she found
they had four in their party. Of course
she strentched the invitation to include
the other two, which gave her eleven
supper guests.
Early Sunday morning she was called
up by the same friends. They were so de
lighted to have run across in the hotel
rotunda Mr.. Freshing and Mr.. Smythe
Inc men had spoken so kindly of the Will
coXes and wanted TO call there as well,
! So. In short. Mr. Freshing and Mr..
Smythe were coming out to the WilCoXeS'
to Sunday night tea. and Mr. Freshing
had brother visiting him and was going
10 take the liberty of bringing him along.
Mrs. Wilcox dropped the receiver with a
slam when she received this last bit Of
news. Fourteen she gasjed
With so many strangers the convenient
and ever-obtainable Dutch lunch would
never do. The leg of lamb was fairly
large. Perhaps if MIR. Wilcox were suit
ably impressed with the horror of the
situation she was facing he would for
once carve economically. If he did there
might be plenty of cold lamb left. She
would give her dinner guests plain cucum-
bers and save the lettuce and tomatoes
for the evening. She would make some
sort of pudding for dinner and mix the
red raspberries intended for dinner with
the black raspberries meant for tea, save
the cream for whipping to serve with
them, likewise the cake.
So she sat her two guests and her fam
lily down to most moderate Sunday din
ner, dinner over which an air of con-
straint lowered from start to finish Mr..
WilcoXs feelings were hurt by. the ex-
IRENE definiteness with which his wife
had pointed out his deficiencies in the
matter of carving. Tommy and Elsie and
Bernice had been SO emphaucally for
hidden to ask for more lamb that their
little souls were filled with fear of i'm
minent starvation.
About o'clock AIrs. WilcoX's house
guests came to her just as she had fin
ished setting her table for fourteen and
declared their intention of going over to
the NOTJn size IOT the evening, IOT CleS
knew none of the guests who. were com
ing. Just then her sister came in from
Evanston( insisting on taking Tommy and
Elsie home with her. So Mrs. Wilcox
packed up their small belongings. saw
them off with a sigh, and went back to
the kitchen to slice. the cold roast.
Bernice came rushing over from next
door. She had a supper invitation which
her mother CURLY allowed her to accept.
Then the telephone rang.
I'VE can't come tonight, dear Mrs. Will
cox" came over the wire. I'VE are so
sorry. but we have a box at the theatre
tonight and you are so far out and it's
so late to start for your house-so Mr.
Smythe won't come, either, nor the Fresh
ing boys"
Mrs. Wilcox dropped the receiver and
went out to view with flashing eyes her
table set for fourteen, the huge platter of
cold sliced lamb, her salad, her fruit,
Half an hour later she and her husband
sat down at the kitchen table and had an
interesting little meal.