The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-02-20
A MATTER OF BREAD.
BY CARROLL WATSON RANKIN.


|
The Martins, father and son, were
in partnership. Mr.. Martin, vision
ary person with no practical expert
ence, mismanaged the Singleton end
of the business, where noisy sawmills
cut mighty northern Michigan logs
into lumber. Robert ran the Office in
Bayport, the nearest shipping point.
Owing to a curious lack of judgment,
both men proved round pegs in square
holes.
When the once considerable Martin
property had dwindled to two idle
mills, hopelessly remote from availa-
bic timber, and few acres of stump
age that nobody wanted for farming
purposes, Mr.. Martin died.
Before this the older Martins had
lived in Singleton. Robert and his
young wife had dwelt in Bayport,
twenty miles distant. Now Robert
sold all that was portable of the Shin
gleton property, and, with many mis-
givings, decided to move his mother
to Bayporr.
You'll never agree in the wide
world" said Robert, divulging his
plan to his wife,. "Both you and
mother are frst-class of your kind !;
but you're not the same kind"
"I'm not perfect" said Petrina,
modestly. "And you know, Bob,
I've always prided myself on my
adaptability. If you'll just keep me
bolstered with timely bits of informa-
ton, I'll have things just the way
your mother likes them. I'm going
to pose as model daughter-in-law."
"Wouldn't it be safer and a whole
lot easier to be just yourself? I'm
sorry that the business"
"Cheer up, deary; things might
be worse, and so far your mother and
I have agreed beautifully"
s'At distance, demurred Robert.
"You've never lived together. But
until I've discovered exactly how
poor we are, one roof is all we can
afford"
"I'll make it big enough" assured
Petrina, comfortingly.
Mrs. Martin, senior, was square1y
and solidly built. She made one
think of substantial business block
constructed for utility only. She
swept on Friday, baked beans on
Thursday, washed on Monday, wound
her clock at 9 every Saturday night,
and bought six new pillow-cases every
January.
Mrs. Martin, junior, sent her wash
ing out, swept only when the house
demanded sweeping, and at irregular
intervals bought beans ready-baked
from a woman's exchange. Yet Pc
trina made Robert comfortable, her
household expenses were not exces-
sive, and, moreover, she trimmed her
own hats and made her own shirt
waists.
Petrina knew that Mrs. Martin had
baked bread every Wednesday and
Saturday for thirty years and had
grown gray worrying over what to
do with the surplus. Petrina had
purchased a loaf at time, as she
needed it, from a breadmaking neigh
Dor.
Instead of confessing, however, that
her bread was acquired in this easy
manner, young Mrs. Martin, feelin G
certain that the knowledge would
shock Roberts mother, foo1ishly at
tempted to conceal it. She colored
guiltily when the older woman praised
the loaf yet, having failed at the
proper moment to disclose the truth,
Petrina felt obliged thereafter to Snug
| gle bread in at the back door.
As the week wore on the culprit
realized that it would never do to
serve a perfectly fresh loaf every Sec
ond day, since that would certainly
rouse suspicion so she purchased
stale 1oaves and ate them unhappily.
When they were good only for toast,
she was moved to further effort.
Robert" she confded one morn
ing, "I'm afraid I'll have to live up
to my reputation for breadmakirg.
But couldn't attempt to set bread
with your mother looking on. Could
you not take her sightseeing for few
hours1 If the coast were clear until
I o'clock, the worst of the agony
would be over. I'll use compressed
yeast they say that rises quickly.
But never could handle sticky things
gracefully-she'd detect my inexperi-
ence at once"
"Why not get mother to show you
howl"
"And let her discover that I mar
ried her son without knowing how to
make bread? I wish to keep her ad-
miration and respect. Take her to
the Indian Museum by the Elmwood
trolley-it's S the slcwest. Please help
me out, Bob |"
So Robert yielded. The coast clear,
Petrina set her bread. Now bread
dough, as everybody knows, is the
most untrustworthy stuff in the culi
nary kingdom. Occasionally even an
experienced cook encounters a batch
of dough that seems possessed to GO
wrong. All other times dough that
seems in its early stages unpromising
develops unexpectedly into good
bread.
Petrina's dough misbehaved from
the very outset to the bitter end. The
-four refused to associate with the
water, the little gray-green puddles
of yeast declined also to mix +; the
shortening foated loftily in exclusive
islands.
"It's either too wet or too dry,
said Petrina, peering doubtfully into
the pan. "Yet three quarts of water
4 A.. = %t1SS11,