Year: 1878

eggs with a gridiron that was one OF


the most interesting sights | ever saw,


The eggs would be in a small bowl, and


she could reach them only with a small
( corner Of the gridiron, but she threw


a heartiness, and enthusiasm, a whole


sOuled earnestness into her manner oJ


of brandlshing the gridirOn which was


poetry merely to look at. There was


an originality, too, about her method OF


making griddle-cakes. When they were


done enough on one side, she always


turned the griddle over, instead of the


cakes, and when the cakes dropped into


the fire she would seem as much sur


prised and hurt as if personal friend


had insulted her. | think she never


understood eXatly how it was. She APP


peared to have dreamy kind of an idea


that the laws Of the universe were sus-


pended somehow whenever she baked
griddle-cakes.


That wet Monday we had early in
June she was unable to dry her washed
clothes in the open air, so she got my
son lvanhOe's magic lantern and turned
the reflector on the wet sheets, under
the impression that the light would
dry them. She told Mrs. Adeler that if
she had a locomotive headlight she
would dry the whole wash in an hour.


Her greatest culinary sensations, how
ever, were produced on the day she
tried to make bean-soup ont of coffee
berries and to sweeten the cup-custard
with cream of tartar.


Leone had a good deal of mechanical
ingenuity for hired girl. She rugged
up series of wires and bell-crank lev
ers, running from the garret to the
kitchen, by which she could bolt her
sleeping. room door ard unbolt it with
out going up stairs, (She always acted
as if she had millions of dollars worth
of diamonds in her trunk, and was
afraid of being robbed.) But the ar
rangement was defective in some par
ticulars. She would pull the wire and
unbolt the door before going up stairs.
Then, as soon as she left go of the wire
the door would bolt itself again, and
when she got up stairs she couldn't get
in. She made fifteen trips up and down
stairs the first night, trying to get the
thing fixed, and finally she slept out
In the entry.


Her coal-scuttle holster was a bigger |
thing still. There used to be a dumb |
waiter running from the kitchen down |
into the cellar, but l had it taken out.
Leone bought a rope, and put it over
the pulley, which was still standing.
Then she put large box on each end |
of the rope. Her idea was to fill enc |
box with loaded coal-scutiles and then |
to pull them up by standing in the 9TH
er box. The first time she tried it she |
was panied to find that she would have
to go up stairs to get in the empty box.
But she did so, and the scuttles came |
up all right. However, when she des
cended, with the other box, she stepped |
out and the scuttles came down again
with rush. Mrs. Adeler's aunt
thought there had been an earthquake.
Leone went up stairs again and des-
cended a second time in the empty box.
When she got down she was afraid to
get out or let go; and she sat there un-
til morning trying to figure out why
the machine wouldn't operate. She
would have been there yet if | hadn't
called her to get breakfast.


Leone left us the next day. She said
she was going to Italy to study to be an
opera singer. have doubted the story
since we missed s teaspoons and lbs.
sifted sugar. But | would give my last
dollar to see Leone trying to play the
part of Norma. A redheaded Norma
horse and stirring eggs with
a gridiron would create sensation.