The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-03-16
THE FEUD OF THE SECURED PAN.
: By GRACE JEwErr AUSTIN.

By GRACE JEWETT AUSTIN.
About two months before the cher
ry-tree limb broke down, Mrs. Wat
son leaned over the Reads fence with
neighborly smile on her face.
"Have some passnips, Mis- Read ?
Those down at the grocery are just
drisd-up sticks beside these. Jim
complains good deal that we haven I
got a plot to raise garden sass, but he
always declares that raise few pass
nips he must and will. These have
had frost enough to get the good taste
into EN-"
Mrs. Read turned slowly from the
shining window, which she had just
finished washing, and came to the
fence.
We've never been overly fond of
parsnips," she replied, with an ex-
ira careful r. 'but perhaps that is
because ours came out of the grocery. I"
She took the rusty, dirt-encrusted
pan which Mrs. Watson held out with
a jovial smile and the remark, Don't
bother to wash that old pan. It's
been my garden pan for years"
As Mrs. Read disappeared into the
house, Mrs. Watson strolled back to
her parsnip bed, and locking down at
the tiny feathery shoots, addressed to
them her opinion of her neighbor
She's stiff an nowise neighborly,
to my thinkin'. but I mean to keep
on. They've bought the house, and
she's got sickly husband and a cross
baby. SO 1 guess she needs some
pleasant words, if she don't give any
back again."
Now no one who saw Mrs. Read s
kitchen would have judged that its
mistress had the care of any invalid
to divert her from household duties.
The floor. in the old New England
phrase, twas fit for the queen to eat
off of" while shining range. gleam
ing faucets and snowy sink all spoke
of painstaking labor. Into this realm
ofsoap was carried, rather unwillingly,
it must be confessed, Mrs. Watson s
dirty parsnip pan. There was abso-
lutely no place to put it, so holding
her apron shelteringly beneath it,
Mrs. Read went to the sitting.room
for newspaper, and returning, spread
it over her snow white table, and then
was at liberty to lay her burden
down.
"Humph Such dirty folks do
beat all Before I'd offer anybody a
pan like that I'd sit up nights to scrub
it !! There must be quart of dirt on
those parsnips, too" She rubbed
and scrubbed them with a serious
vigor that soon made row of six
shining white vegetables, fit for a
county fair, on the table.
But there were other worlds to con-
quer Did anything ever look so
out of place in a spotless kitchen as
thar woful old pan? Mrs. Read stared
at it doubtfully, then set-her lips and
crossed the Rubicon. Lye, sand and
soap, bristol brick, hard soap, soft
soap, hot water in hoods-how the
elements ragged in that little kitchen
At the end of an hour Mrs. Read
drew long breath.
"Now I call that a pan 1t was
brighter, maybe, when it was just out
of the store, but it's very respect.
able pan."
Toward evening she raped at Mrs.
Watson's back door, but getting NO
reply, came away, leaving the pan on
the porch, thus giving her neighbor
almost a battle challenge.
"What's that? 7" exclaimed Mrs.
Watson, dramatically, the next morn
ing, as she stepped out for her milk
bottle.
is that my pan? And she couldn't
even hand it to me like Christian,
but had to tiptoe over and sneak it
onto my back porch y Here she
was wronging Mrs. Read, who had
really tapped at the back door, but nc
knowledge of this came to calm the
angry woman.
$50 she thought it was her bounden
duty to clean up after me, did she :!
And all those good passnips wasted
on her, too Hope they'll choke
her Now maybe like as not she
thought they were too dirty for her
If she's dared to dump 'em in hei
garbage box I'll complain to the po.
lice and I'm going straight to the
alley this minute to see u
Luckily that last straw was not ad
ded to Mrs. Watson's wrath, but al
the forenoon her indignation wa:
seething and bubbling, until the time
when Mrs. Read stepped from hel
back door with pan of potato peel
ings. Once again a hand holding g
pan was thrust over the fence at her
but this time no cherry smile moi
friendly word accompanied it.
81 think you d just better have par
as we'll as passnips, since you've beer
to such pains in cleanin' it. Wher
folks as good as tell me I m a heather
to my face, I'm done with them, Sc
there now |"
The pan fell on the Read side o
the fence with clang, but Mrs. Reae
had no reply to make for a moment
Her conscience did suggest an apol
ogy but no, the disciple of cleanli
ness must stick to her colors. Sh,
came forward stifly.
81 do not need your pan any NOR
than l needed your parsnips, and