Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-09-15

l we got through the evening better
than had at first seemed likely, and in
the morning the girls rose at five and
| tried to hurry that mug bread along.
with other things, so as to have some
OF it for dinner, for they found that
| they were short of bread.
Ellen, I believe, thought that they
had better not attempt the risky expert
ment, but should start some hop-yeast
bread.
Theodora, however, peeped into the
Old mug, saw encoura ging eyes in it,
and resolved to go on. They mixed
1t up with the necessary warm water
] and flour and set it carefully back for
| the second rising.
Perhaps they had little hotter fire
than usual, perhaps they had hurried
it shade too much, orwell, you
can perhaps anything you like with
milk-yeast bread. At all events. it
took the wrong turn and began to per-
fume the kitchen.
II they had not been hard pressed
and little hurried that morning. the
girls would probably have thrown it
out. Instead, they took it down, saw
that it was rising little and-hoping
that it would yet pull through-worked
in more flour and soda, and hurried
four loaves Of it into the oven to bake.
Then it was that the unleavened
turpitude of that microbe displayed the
full measure of it's malignity.. A hor-
rible odor presently filed the place.
a IL
Blest beside it.
The girls hastily shut the kitchen
doors, but doors would not hold it in.
1t captured the whole house.
Aunt Nabbie, in the sitting room, per-
celved 1t, and came rushing out to give
mOtherly advice and assistance
And it CHANGED that while Theodore
was confidentially explaining it to her.
the kitchen door leading to the front
piazza opened, and in walked Uncle
Pascal, and Olin behind him. They
had been out in the garden, looking at
the fruit, and had come back to get
Aunt Nabbie to see the bees.
When that awful cdor smote them
they stopped short. Uncle Mowbray
wasla fastidious man. He shifted and
turned up his nose.
lis it sink spouts?" he gasped. 'Are
the traps out of order?'
''No, no, Pascalr' said Aunt Nabbie,
in a low tone, trying to quiet him. 1T
is only bread"
"Bread!' cried Uncle Mowbray, with
a glance Of rank suspicion at the two
girls. Bread smelling like that!'
Just then Ellen discovered something
white which appeared to be mysferi-
ously increasing in size in the shadow
on the back of the kitchen stove.
After glance she caught open the
oven door.
1T was that mug g-bread dough! It
had crawled-crawled out of the tins
into the oven-crawled down under the
oven door to the kitchen floor, where
it made viscous puddle, and was
now trying, apparently, to crawl out
OF sight under the woodbox
Aunt Nabbie burst out laughing; she
could not help it. Then she tried to
turn Uncle Mowbray out.
But no, he must stand there and
talk about it. He was one of those
men who are always peeping round the
kitchen, to see if the women are doing
things right. But Olin scudded out
after one look, and the girls saw him
under the Balm of Gilead tree, shak-
mig and laughing as II he would split.
Poor Doad and Nell! That was a
dreadful forenoon for them. AS youth
full housekeepers, they felt themselves
disgraced beyond redemption. In three
years they had not recovered from it,
and would cringe when any one re-
minded them of Uncle Mowbray and
the mug-bread.-Youth's Companion.