, 1923-05-24
That Angelic
Miss Nelson
BY DORA



When Mrs. Lawrence went abroad
for a year and left her little hillside
cottage to her nephew, Fred Gray, to
occupy as he chose on vacations, holi-
days and week ends, she had given
him no end of directions n explana-
tons. There was enough coal and
wood to keep fires for cold weather
and week ends and holidays that he
would probably spend there; there
were several dozen jars of preserves
and jams in the store closet and the
key to the store closet was under the
old blue teapot in the china closet
b china closet key hanging on the in
side of the old door of the Did grand
fathers clock-that didn't run-in the
dining room. There were good enough
stores in the village, fifteen miles off.
and an itinerant provision dealer. Mrs.
Brown, the farmers wife, made excel
lent pies and bread and she would, If
you approached her tactfully, do wash
ing for you, n be glad of the chance.
And your next door neighbor-do
get acquainted with her. She's that
angelic Miss Nelson / told you about.
Teaches kindergarten in the city, but
spends holidays and vacations in the
little cottage on the next place. She
was SO good when l sprained my ankle
last summer-a young girl, but perfect
ly angelic"
Fred had a prejudice, retained no
doubt from his childhood days, against
all school teachers, especially kinder
garten teachers. Moreover, If his aunt,
Mrs. Lawrence, had really wanted to
predispose him in favor Of his country
neighbor she should not have used that
adjective angelic" She would prob
ably begin trying to dissuade hin from
pipe smoking the second time she ever
met him, If he gave her a chance to
meet him at all. She'd be pale and
blond and her voice would be very
mildred had a perfectly clear pic
ture of her in his minds eye. HI didn't
give the subject much thought, how
ever, save to carry with him when he
went to the little hillside retreat a dis
tinct determination not to visit his
neighbours cottage under any circum-
stance.
"If you want to borrow anything in
an emergency" his aunt had said, quite
determined to talk about this angelic
creature, don't hesitate to ask Miss
Nelson. She's the most obliging crea-
ture in tie world. I've told her you're
coming occasionally, so she'll be pre-
pared"
1t hadn't seemed to Fred Gray that
he could possibly want to borrow any
thing. 1t seemed, in fact, that the one
drawback TO the perfection of the cot
tage arranS sment vas that there were
too many things about, too much equip
ment. But n day Fred made up his
mind to try his hand at making flap
jacks. He was not a natural born
cook, but there fingered the ~recollec-
ton in his mind of flap-jacks as they
had been made by one of the older
boys at a camp he had once attended.
He was expecting as a weekend guest
n of his old friends who had been
of the party on this camping expedi-
ton, and II occurred to hin that he
a best practice the fine art Of flap
jacketing before he served them to his
guest on h following Sunday morn
ing.
So Fred made the batter according
TO directions in the recipe hook his
aun had left. He found the old, we'll
seasoned soapstone griddle. He
creased II and heated 1t slowly as he
had seen the fiap-jack expert of his
boyhood do, then dipped the golden
batter and dropped out luscious rounds
on the hot surface. Bubbles appeared.
II was time, the book said. to turn
them
Fred looked helplessly around. How
did one turn flap-jacks2 2" he asked him
self. He put his hand out helplessly.
He seized n large spoon. No. that
wasn't the right implement. He tried
TO toss one OF the cakes over with It
and II resulted in disaster. The cakes
were already beginning 10 smoke omi-
nously. He pushed the griddle back to
the cool section of the stow and
scraped the burned remains off as best
he could. Then he smiled.
"A turner. of course" he reflected.
"a little shovel affair" He emem-
bered distinctly. Ned looked in vain
for such an implement in the cup
boards Of his aunt's kitchen. So he
ate his breakfast without the flap
jacks and set the batter aside. deter
mined TO have some for luncheon. OF
course, he couldn't get to the store,
fifteen miles of. for a nnp-jack turner
this morning. The road was rough
and hilly and he did not tax the feeble
powers Of his secondhand roadster for
this journey more than once n week.
He must have n lap-jack turner, he
reflected, and then he recalled what
his alnt had said concerning "the an