The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-30
LETTERS OF
TWO WOMEN
A Postscript From May. Bride, to
Kate. Business Girl.
By ZOE BECKLEY.
Kerryville. Same ID

Kerryville. Same Date.
It's after dinner. Kits, dearie, ana
I've been so bothered by that stupid
letter I wrote you today. that I'm
going to add a postscript in lighter
vein.
For the first time since our mar
rage 1 cooked whole meal! Con-
sidering how l hate to cook, 1t wasn't
so bad We have been taking nearly
all meals with the folks, and they
have a nice girl-not servant at al,
YOU know; they don't have them out
here I've cooked a few odds and
ends, mostly odds when they were
finished but today Curtis said he felt
like having a chicken and i'm
pulsively promised to cook one! oh.
Kate,
got at a butchers, and all you had
to do was to put them in pan in the
oven 1t never occurred to me that
chickens natural state is with feathers
on the outside and other less pleasant
things within. Or that it is alive and
has to be beheaded. etc, before one
could prepare it for the table.
I Oh, Katei
looked at the chickens in the yard.
and slowly it dawned on me that
would have to pursue one of those
| pretty things and-and-
| Well, 1 just couldn't. And didn't.
| Instead l ran over to ma-in-laws
house and told her my difficulty. |
Peter, who sometimes works in their
! cornfield. see to it.
But she didn't laugh. Kittie. She
was very busy, and somehow / got the
| impression that she thought me little
! silly not to know about the chicken.
Mother-in-law Bond wiped her hands.
put on her sunbonnet and hurried out
| into the yard. l heard an awful caclS-
| ling-then a hard sound of metal on
woodland my husbands mother came
| oh hxrf fnnf wit
a piece of newspaper wrapped round
! the rest of it.
| l thought 1 should have a convul
sion taking it home. And another
when I realized what 1 had to do with
, it before it could be cooked. 1t was
! my first vivid experience of middle
! western housewifery. But lived thru
, it, Kat, and Curtis never noticed that
1 didn't eat a speck of that chicken at
/. dinner.
But housekeeping has its funny
side out here, too. You'd die laugh
ing to see Curt and me go shopping.
| We need oilcloth, say, for the
| kitchen. So we go down to the En-
! porium store Eyes, that's it's name)-
a general merchandise shop which
| sells everything from buggies to, hair
pins and dried peas-and look at limo
! leums. If we are in doubt as to how
much to get, Curtis hollers over to
the girl as the desk-"Oh, Beryl," II
love these country nameSD, telephone
mother and ask her to run over 10
our house and measure the space be-
tween the sink and the cupboa rd.''
And Beryl phones up and holds the
| wire while ma runs for the tapeline
and sends back the information.
Then we proceed with our shopping.
The country is beautiful now. CT
! wonder how Broadway looks?) And
oh, the vast expanse. Interminable
stretches of pasture and farm land
meet your eye. 1t seems to have no
end, like the ocean. Then the great
farms chock full of things growing
that's what 1 never tire of seeing,
Katie, things growing@and then the
little white and green houses OF Ker-
ryville nesting among the trees,
some still in blossom.
1t gets awfully hot here later, they
say, and ] dread that. Also | fear
the intellectual atmosphere of this
tiny town would eventually pail II I
brea thed it too intimately. The work
is no trile. either. Everybody works
out here, even father You pump
your own water and you have your
own natural gas well 1--WE cook and
heat entirely by natural gas, you
KNOW. and the housewives hereabout
win think I'm an utter trifier IL L
don't do my own washing! Fancy
me- There-have I taken off the
curse of my stupid other letter?
Adoringly May