The Washington herald., 1911-12-26

| pose active resistance to the scheme.
her own powers she would easily con-
vince her mother that she needed very
little training.
Il think 1 will begin with bread" she
told her mother. with some private ad-
miratiOn for the common sense that
had led her to take this instead of
cake or fudge. Just give me the recipe
and Ill make it,
"A very good notion" commented
her mother; and having given her the
directions, introduced her to the flour,
the yeast cake, and other ingredients,
she left the young graduate to her own
devices.
Any of you who recollect your be-
ginning in cookery. or who have train
ed green hands" can guess what fol-
lowed. The recipe was eXplicit-but
the -four Jumped, she spilled it in the
stirring, the dough stuck to the board
and to her fingers, her arms ached
from the kneadinG, and she did not
know how to handle the dough, the
consistency it should have been was
an unknown quantity, and she was
generally miserable by the time she
had reached the setting to rise" stage.
But she was proud and would ask no
qucstions-Only how was she to know
when IT had risen enough? The book
said until light" What constituted
ightncss in bread? Was it color or
quality?
Not until she vas convinced that there
was nothing in the directions to help her
did she shamefacedly turn to her mother
and learn that the dough must swell to
twice its original bulk before it was ready
to be worked again and put in the pans
When this period was attained, the moth
er taCtfully made a few suggestions both
about the kneadng and the making into
loaves. and gave sidelights on rolls at
the same time. She also intimated that
there was judgment in having the oven
the right temperature for bread, and
dropped a word anent the varying heats
required for bread, meats, mullins, cake,
&C.
The girls eyes opened a little and her
respect for her mother and for trained
housekeeping rose together. BY the time
the bread was finally out OF the oven she
had found that perhaps cookery was
something which could not be acquired
altogether from books. and that II reSem-
bed a language, in that while you might
be able to gain knowledge of the grammar
and vocabulary by study. you could not
speak ii without some practice.
This was the first step, and others fol-
lowed it. Gradually the girl became in
terested in cooking. She perceived that
there was as much victory in mixing and
baking a successful cake or pan of muf-
fms as there was in solving problem in
geometry. and that the enjoyment she
found in seeing her dishes eaten with sat
isfactiOn was as gratifying as winning
good mark in recitation.
She learned also that cookery is as
much of an exact science as any of the
branches she had studied at school and
that her mothers mental equipment
was not to be despised. even if she
knew biology and physics and trigo
nOmetry only as names.
OF course. the girl was not always
successful in her cookery. She had the
usual checks and disasters of the stu
dent but once she had grown into fell
lowship with her mother she did not
mind cOnfessing her mistakes and be-
ing instructed how to avoid them in
future.
Moreover. the two Developed one
another. They devised fresh combina-
lions, they tried new recipes together,
they became close companions in the
novel interest, and the mothers we'll
trOdden routine was enlivened by the
daughters experiments. while the lat
ter learned the small economies. the
wise savings long drill had taught the
older woman.
This is not a fairy tale or a gOody
goody story, but an account of what
really happened to one mother and
daughter, and that may happen again,
in a home where the mother is a
trained housekeeper and has the pa
thence and ambition to help her daugh-
ter to learn to keep house in a rational
way. If l have laid special stress upon
the culinary side of the home making,
1t is because this is the side which can
not be picked up at random or learned
by chance or from a book. as some
other details of housekeeping can be
gained, but must be acquired by actual
practice and apprenticeship.