522 Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



of the boiler was protected from the air, as well as the bottom and sides. 

 Just before going to bed the farmer's wife brought water to boil on her 

 blue-flame stove, stirred in oatmeal, grits, cracked wheat, Indian meal, 

 rye meal, or whatever she wanted for breakfast, let it boil ten minutes, 

 put on the cover tight, set it into the boiler in the box, locked the chest 

 and went to bed. In the morning every grain was swollen to its utmost, 

 unbroken, sweet, appetizing. Breakfast was made of bread and butter, 

 this cereal, apple sauce, or prunes or pears, also cooked in the " hay box," 

 baked potatoes and a johnny cake which had baked over the blueflame 

 while the milk was skimmed and the table laid. 



For dinner the hay box cooked macaroni, potatoes, carrots, or cauli- 

 flower, the white sauce and the steamed eggs, or other food requiring 

 quicker heat, going over the stove. Supper, of farina, cooked in the hay 

 box, with cream, v/hole wheat bread, cocoa and simple gingerbread, was 

 as easily prepared. The housekeeper had never, in 45 years' experience, 

 used lard. If potatoes were to be warmed in a pan, a bit of butter or 

 a spoonful of table oil, was all that was necessary. Doughnuts, fried 

 things of all kinds were unknown. Pies were made of cream crust and 

 fruit, with no under layer of crust. Fruits of various kinds were sup- 

 plied and bread of half a dozen sorts. These, with ordinary vegetables 

 gave a wholesome diet, which was enriched by "shellbarks" from the 

 woods and peanuts from the village. 



The wood stove, which was kept going in winter, had its hot water 

 tank. In summer the soft water from the roof was quickly heated over 

 the blue-flame stove. The dishes and knives were first wiped with 

 newspaper. — which was kept ready cut in a pile on the shelf — then 

 washed in warm soap and water, placed in a pan, rinsed with actually 

 boiling water, and dried, in almost an instant, without a towel. The one 

 towel used for the glass and silver, was rinsed out at every meal, shaken 

 and dried smooth, so that it was always sweet. 



Cooking in this household was made easy, the food was excellent, 

 and the digestion perfect. Instead of walking in the kitchen the good 

 wife walked in the woods, and the breath of wild flowers saluted her 

 nostrils instead of the odor of grease. 



Farmers' wives have a hard enough life at best, but the drudgery of 

 preparing food might be greatly lessened if they would believe it. 



It is not only in the country that one may learn to economize space 

 and time. In a third story room of a pretty house in Washington a lady 

 has converted a tiny hall bedroom into a miniature kitchen. Within the 

 'jyq room every appliance of a kitchen is to be found, running water, a 

 stove, oven, cupboard, shelves, stores, tiny ice box, etc. — and the clever 

 lady who presides there says she has only to turn on her heel to provide 

 a five course dinner for herself, her mother and two friends. 



