The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1907-07-19
SABBATH I'M THE
COUNTRY
BY EDNA CHASE JONES.

stays at home.
Her years of experience as a public
school teacher had not given her a
very thorough education in the why's
and wherefores of housekeeping; and
there remained only the general prin-
ciples of housewifely art taught her
by a wise mother in her grammar.
school DAYS.
1t was their first year in their coun-
try home; and many and varied we're
the things that befell them.
But one day stands pre-eminent in
the length of it's programme of disas-.
ter; perhaps because the first num-
Der occurred the night before.
A member of the family who acted
as housekeeper went away on Satur-
day, to be gone over Sunday, leaving
Mr.. and Mrs. Commuter and another
member of the family, whom we will
call The Man, to attend to the house
work, as well as an incubator, some
tiny chickens, and other things too
common and too numerous to mention.
The uninitiated can scarcely appre-
OltlIC Tic 1lIIulC dIICnllOn w QCleill
which is necessary to make the
wooden mother" perform her duties
successfully.
The incubator is like classical mut
sic; no one but an expert performer
realizes the practice and study that
are necessary to perfection.
Charity throws a veil over the iden-
~ i IL I'll.
that night; results lead one to think
that he Tor she) was not an expert
operator.
When partly through dinner The
Man shifted suspiciously once or
twice, and said, ut seems to me that
l smell oil smoke"
A hasty Journey to the cellar dis
closed the fact that the cellar was
full of smoke from the incubator lamp,
and that was coated with lamp black.
A weary half hour with wires and
rags transferred the worst of the lamp
black from the incubator to the work
ars; and the lamp, apparently all
right at bed time, was left to it's
own devices.
The first look in the morning was
not so satisfactory, the thing had been
smoking again.
Such calamity could not be met,
on an empty stomach, so Mr.. Com
muter decided on coffee as the most
forttfying breakfast.
bic is blest with an inordinate fond
ness for condensed milk; and for once
he arranged his coffee to suit himself.
.Ln*o a. tin1blef which held almost a,
pspt, he poured about two-thirds of a
Maeupful of condensed milk, them
enough coffee to fill it.
so much milk made thenmixture too
cool, so he set the tumbler on the
range to heat.
It heated.
Just when it was about hot enough
to be satisfactory, sickening,
crack! rent the morning air, and
the tumbler.
With a siss that kept increasing i'm
volume the contents of that tumbIer
spread over the top of the range, ran
down into the oven, into the fire,
onto the hearth, and formed puddle
Oh the floor. That glass seemed to-
have contained as much in proportion
as David Harum's egg.
The covers were turned top side
down to burn while Mrs. Commuter
scrubbed the floor and Mr.. Commuter-
swabbed the labyrinths of the incu7.
bator lamp.
Tho nf
stored in the recesses of the. range
seemed to be inexhaustibe:
She was still scrubbing when Mr.,
Commuter finished down cellar. He,
insisted that as the accident had been
his, he should polish the range After.
a hunt for materials, he fell to work.
The blacking didn't spread to- suit
him, SO he took the brush to the sink,
wet it, and, man-fashion carried it
back to the stove, leaving trail Of
stove backing on the floor behind
him.
Again Mrs. Commuter scrubbed the
floor and laughed in spite of the COM
bination.
He labored under the disadvantage,
of being left handed, and his stabs,
with the brush made one feel like,
getting under cover.
When he was putting on the fin
ishing touches and she was wringing4
tout the scrub cloth, the brush in fdsI
jealous left hand knocked saucepan,
of milk from the CRATE at the back of
the range.
The boots and overshoes drying be-
hind the range had to be emptied and
another section of the floor scrubbed
When that saucepan struck the
floor, Mrs. Commuter fell on her knees
and besought her spouse to go up
stairs and lock the door, and go to
bed before he broke up housekeeping