The Washington herald., 1913-12-07
Nv FRANCES sHAFFER.

A little group OF women nad tnei
heads together awhile ago, and they
seemed TO be so earnest and interest
ed that two others, the merest out
siders, were frankly curious to know
what If was all about.
1t was a long while before the least
inkling drifted their way, but at last
one little word, then another, made 1t
perfectly clear that they were not gos-
siping, not discussing the cut and mt
of the latest gowns, not considering
affairs in their club, not even talking
over the "servant-gir" problem or the
mightier problems of state.
What then? Why, they were just
comparing their favorite recipes!
And when the two listeners really
caught the drift of their talk they
started to smile, though for quite diff
ferent reasons.
One thought it strange and signih-
cant of their caliber that when some
women got together they could find
nothing more enlightening, enlivening,
and intellectual to talk about than a
lot of foolish questions of cooking
lust Shop talk" and nothing more.
As for her, once she left her work.
shop she was glad to rise to something
higher, and let cooking problems take
care of themselves.
But the other said that, if she might,
she really would like to listen some
more and learn the best of their cook
ing conceits because it always was a
pleasure to her to gather something
new from practical housekeepers and
to learn the little kinks in cooking
that elevate it from the commonplace
to a post among the arts.
And she said It reminded her of a
little talk she had had with a man
awhile ago 1t was approaching the
witching dinner hour, and quite like
ly his thoughts were bit biased by a
good, healthy appetite that was calling
aloud for a tasty meal. At any rate,
be drifted away from other subjects
to an offhand talk upon cooking, and
his remarks were worth remembering,
because some of us need to be re-
minded once in a while, of the things
that count the most.
He always had observed, he said,
that there was something about the
careful preparing and serving of foods
that was farther reaching than it
seemed And he did not mean in
homes where high-class chefs abound,
but in the ordinary homes of ordinary
folk. where the hands and the minds
of the womenfolk there were in evil
dencc all the time. As the years went
on, he declared, and the little folk
treasured their memories, they uncon-
sciously stored up a host of pleasant
recollections about the delicious some
things that were made in their homes,
and there alone. They did if the
womenfolk there placed the right
value upon that branch of their work
He did not try to explain why he
thought a lot of care in the way of
cooking left its mark in later days,
or why there was something about it
that did boy good in more ways than
one, but, with a far-away look, he
quoted line or two from James Whit
comb Riley's Out to Old Aunt
Mary'S-
And her face-oh, me,
Wasn't it good for a boy to see'
And wasn't it good for a boy TO be
Out 10 old Aunt Mary'sH
And who couldn't guess a small
part of the why?
Because when we 60 drifting back
to the beautiful land of Used-to-Be"
the visions are infinitely sweeter by
reason of a very patient somebody
there ever ready to prepare a little
feast of goodies for picnic days and
for everydays and to send the small
folk on their way rejoicing with some
fresh little token of love. At the
time the boys and girls take those
things for granted and think nothing
at all of the labor of love; but when
memory plays an old tune on the
heart we begin to understand some
of the things that make for the real
fragrance of childhood.
And fortunate the men and women
who can look back upon happy days
sympathy and patieace of some one
who was willing to take pains for the
sake of making childhood go by like
a song. Mothers themselves scarcely
realize how they are building bit of
themselves into the lives of their
young folk, never guess the happy
little experiences that are remembered,
and long afterward reckoned at their
real value. They are building better
than they know when they take the
trouble, once in a while or so, to
contribute dear little cookies and jams
and a few other things for the ban
quets under the trees, because-but
who can describe every step in the
process of making our standards?
This much we know-the man was
right when he said that painstaking
cooking, food that somehow has about
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