Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-09-15
MUG-BREAD
By G. A. STEPHENS

promptly to the swill-barrel. It is use
less to daily with it. You will be sorry
II you do. When it goes wrong it is
utterly depraved.
remember an experience which
Iheodora and Ellen had with mug
bread on one occasion, when grand
mother was away from home. Aunt
Nabbie and Uncle Pascal Mowbray
came on from Philadelphia, while she
and grandfather were gone.
Aunt Nabbie was grandmother's sis
ter, and she and Uncle Mowbray had
been talking all that season of coming
to visit us. But September had usually
been spoken of as the time they were
coming
They changed their minds, however
Uncle Pascal desired to look after some
business venture Of his in Portland
| and decided to come in August.
1t was somewhat sudden change OF
plan, but they sent us letter the day
before they started, thinking that we
should get it and meet them at the rail
way station.
Now, all dear city cousins, aunts
uncles and the rest of you who visit
your country relatives, winter or sum
mer, hear me! Do not hold back your
letter telling them you are coming
till the day before you start.
Nine times out Of ten they will not
get it. You will get there before the
letter does, and the chances are that
you will have to provide your own
transportation for the six or ten miles
from the railway station to the farm
and you will think that distance longer
than all the rest of the journey.
Most likely, too, you will find the
farmer gone to grange meeting; and
by the time you have sat round the
door on your trunk till he gets back at
sunset, you will be homesick and may
be hungry.
Also-for there are two sides to the
matter-your country brother and his
wife will be troubled about it, So send
your letter at least a week ahead.
The first we knew of the coming of
Uncle Pascal and Aunt Nabbie, they
drove into the yard with a livery
team from the village; and an express
wagon was coming on behind with
their trunks.
Besides uncle and aunt, there was a
smiling, dark-haired youth with them,
granddaughter of Uncle Mowbray,
named Olin Randall, whom we had
heard of often as a kind of third or
fourth cousin, but had never seen.
He had never beheld Maine before,
and was regarding everything with
curiosity and little grin of conde-
scension.
That grin of his nearly upset us,
particularly Ellen and "Doad," who
for hundred reasons wished to make
very favorable impression on Uncle
and Aunt Mowbray and all the family.
I nearly forgot to mention that Uncle
Mowbray was reputed very fussy and
particular about his food. s.
Grandfather and grandmother had
set off that morning to attend confer
ence meeting eighteen miles away, at
Turner, and were not coming back
till the next day at night-a thing they
would no more have done had they
known Aunt Nabbie was coming than
they would have set sail for Australia.
That visit had been looked forward to
for five years.
Our two-story farmhouse was com
Portable and big, and we had plenty of
everything; but Of course it was not al
together like one of the finest houses
in Philadelphia. For Uncle Mowbray
was wealthy man, one of those
thrifty, prosperous Philadelphia mer-
chants of the era ending with the Civil
War. He never let dollar escape
him.
They came just at dusk. We boys
were doing the chores. The girls were
getting supper.
Theodore had resolved to try her
hand at batch of mug-bread for the
next day, and had set Old Hannah up
for it.
The unexpected arrival upset us all
good deal, particularly Ellen and
Dora, who had to bear the brunt of
grandmother's absence, get tea, see to
the spare rooms, and do everything
else.
Uncle Mowbray looked a little glum.
He was tired, suppose, and disap-
pointed to find the older people away
And then there was Olin, mildly grin
ming.
His presence disturbed the girls
worse than everything else. But Aunt
Nabbie smoothed away their anxieties
and helped to make all comfortable.