Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1904-07-28
The Summer Visitor.

Inc summer NiStAOf.
Again that tenderly suggestive season,
Old Home Week, is approaching "when
dear to the heart are the scenes of my
childhood, as fond recollection presents
them to view, =" and said heart is inspired
to pay a visit to the old farm ana the
worthy folks who carry il on, and study
its scenery, principally, for the purpose OF
J discovering the best place to SOW oats or
some other staple product.
II is no trouble for country people to
have company; in fact they revel IN It.
They have plenty OF room, raise every
thing they need for the table except a few
groceries. and find their chief diversion in
entertaining distant cousins, who forget
their existence for ten or eleven months
on a stretch. to remember them again in
July or August.
A letter Is received at the old home
announcing the train by which John and
his family will arrive for the annual visl-
tation. The host prepares 10 attend to
farm work when the horses can be spared
from the picnics and drives of the visitors,
and the hostess resigns herself to the tenn
porary loss of the egg-money-the country
term for pin-money-while ice cream ana
angel cake destroy her surplus.
The company come and take possession
of ''the spare rooms; - the spotless parlor is
opened TO the light OF day, its Tides
unused, its carpets tracked by dusty feet,
and its sacred precincts invaded by a
swarm OF flies that find their way with
the guests to the best room in the house.
Screen doors are kept tapping by the chill
dren, who are never in that they don't
want 10 go out, and never out that they
don't want to go in, and are hungry all
the time.
Cookies, doughnuts and cake disappear
with marvellous rapldity. There are not
- -. wmnuIa and tho
hostess, continually bending over a hot
cooking stove in August weather, rather
exceeds in amount OF suffering the early
martyrs who were only tied for a few
hours to a burning stake.
OF course Aunt Miranda is not to put
herself out one bit. The girls would just
love to help her-and can't they wipe the
dishes? Why yes, if they'd like to-and
then they look down at their pretty sum-
mer dresses and request the loan of an
apron. Shielded from the scattering dish
water, they seize the hand towel for a
wiper, and, after r~ectifying the error, pro-
coed to burn their fingers in the rinsing
pan and exclaim at the idea OF using such
very hot water. Finally the dishes are
washed and put away where a bloodhound
couldn't find one in a hurry, and that IS
the end Of it. The girls are not around
when the next batch Of dishes Is due, but
that is not their fault, for they told Aunt
Miranda 'to call them" whenever there
was anything they could do.
However, they make up for their ABB
sence at dish washing time by their pres
ence when cooking is going on. Then
they hang over the moulding board, get
between the cook and the flour barrel,
and chatter about their likes and dislikes
in the edible line, until the poor distracted
~compounder of recipes forgets whether
she e MAILING ruGfQrd ME or Cats loot
Jelly.
Had the Hon. Frank Rollins, late gov
ernor Of New Hampshire, been an ex-
perienced housekeeper, he would have
thought twice before letting loose that
beautiful Old Home Week notion.