1876 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



141 



^^ 



"re 



Lin this department I beg; to be allowed to Jay aside the 

 editorial "\v*i," atxl have a f rieiidlj- chat and feel "at home."] 



I 



CHAPTER XXL 

 HAVE before had something to say in re- 

 gard to oisterus lor raiu water ; and as so 

 much has been said, and so many directions 

 been given for building them, in the agricultu- 

 ral papers, perhaps I need not go over the mat- 

 ter here. Our cistern was rebuilt two j'ears 

 ago, and a riltcr made by dividing it in the 

 centre with a wall of soft bricks this furnishes 

 excellent soft water. One word in regard to 

 the size ; our old cistern had several times be- 

 come dry during protracted droutlis, and Mrs. 

 Ii. iDCtitioned so sti'onglj^ to have the new one 

 very large, that I told her to direct the men to 

 build it as large as she chose. On going home 

 to dinner I remonstrated that we should have 

 our whole house tumbling into it if it was 

 anade larger, and that there never co>dd be a 

 time when we should need so much water. 



"But do you not know how nice it is to be 

 able to tell the neighbors tiiey can all have all 

 the soft water they \Tiant, without anj^ fear of 

 the supply becoming exhausted 'r*" 



The argument was convincing, and although 

 xt cost a good round sum, the cistern was built 

 as large as she wished, and as it was deep in 

 proportion, the water is as cold as If it came 

 from a deep well. 



I am afraid we shall now be under the neces- 

 sity of invading the kitchen and cook room, 

 but before eloing so, I will try and describe the 

 way. in which we used to get our water from 

 the pump to the culinary machinery. As both 

 jitove ami pump were near the door, the state 

 ofaflairswas not very bad after all. Perhaps 

 the most inconvenient feature was a door-step 

 made by our predecessor, which althoucth made 

 of planed boards and painted, Avas so ai ranged 

 as to slant away from the house, thereby ma- 

 king it easy to go out because it was dov.n hill. 

 Mrs. R. is very fond o^i^lenty of water as you 

 may have gathered, anel somehow, "we chil- 

 dren" grew to be very fond of plenty of it also, 

 especially if there was plent}^ of it in the pail 

 or in the copper reservoir to our Stewart stove ; 

 if either of these receptacles needed replenish- 

 ing we somehow were very busy, and thus it 

 devolved on the mother to bring all the water 

 — if she did her own work — up those awkward 

 sloping steps which were often icy or covered 

 with snow, for the use of the whole family. 

 Ought we to have been ashamed of ourselves ? 

 Very true, we ought ; but how many mothers 

 are there in our country that find it easier to 

 get the greater part of wood and water them- 

 selves , than to do otherwise? 



The door-step had answered very well for 

 years, and perhaps might have answered for 

 years to come, had not the "proprietor of the 

 mansion" stepped out one bright frosty morn- 

 ing in all the consciousness that every "lord of 

 creation" shoukl have, of his weighty impor- 

 tance and value to community, when all of a 

 sudden in spite of his efforts to" stand with the 

 dignity that becomes such an one, his feet went 

 up, and he had painful evidence of the — uncer- 



tainty of many things in this life, and among 

 them, door-steps that slant the wrong way. 

 Many had been the arguments in regard to this 

 very step, but none farther were needed now. 

 After the cistern was fixed a stone door-step 

 was put in place, but thh was pronounced too 

 small, and after it was suggested that Blue 

 Eyes might tip off backward, etc., Mrs. R. 

 was again given <nrte blanche; and now we 

 have a smooth stone doorstep large enough 

 for all purposes, and it neither tips up, nor 

 slides about. 



The door-step and cistern were great im- 

 provements; some figures were gone over to see 

 how much time and muscular strength were 

 needed to convey the water where needed. 

 Six pails per day would be 43 per week, and 

 washing day would perhaps bring it up to 75 

 per week, or at a rough estimate 10,000 gallons 

 per year. Theories are very nice but they don't 

 always work in practice, and to test the mat- 

 ter fairly a tin lined lea<l pipe was laid from 

 the cistern to a small iron pump in a sink 

 placed as near the stove as was practicable ; 

 the pump left in its old place for any one to 

 use who felt disposed. The result has shown 

 that the out-door pump is scarcely touched the 

 year round, and so nicely does the pump in the 

 kitchen work that when water is wanted for 

 out-door purposes, we almost always go in to 

 the kitchen to get it. We mention this as it 

 has been said that much extra power was need- 

 ed to bring water up and into the house, with 

 a pump. With the pump be it remembered, we 

 have only to furnish the power to carry the 

 water alone, while by the ordinary plan, we 

 are obliged to carry the weight of our bodies 

 in addition. For instance ; a pail of water 

 weighs 2o lbs., and perhaps my readers on an 

 average would weigh 125. Now if you bring 

 the water, you are obliged to carry yourself 

 and the empty pail, and then carry the water 

 and yoursell back again. Perhaps you 

 may remark that you have plenty of 

 strength, and can as well carry the water as 

 not, but what if you find that you are obliged 

 to employ hired help, just because you are un- 

 able to get the work clone otherwise. We will 

 suppose in your household that your wife can 

 not do her work without endangering her 

 health, unless she has assistance, and that both 

 are kept moderately busy in having everything 

 kept up neat and workmanlike. The one who 

 assists must be boarded, and must neccesarily 

 make additional cares, and we have a problem 

 something like the going after the water with 

 a pail. This condition of aflairs we meet over 

 and over again. If we can by making a study 

 of the requirements of the kitchen, save but a 

 small part of the laborious work, the heavy 

 lifting especiall,v, we may enable the mother to 

 do her own work about as easily as she could 

 do it with assistance, and with very much less 

 worry and bother. There need be no discus- 

 sion in regard to the desirableness of saving 

 the dollar a day more that would be required 

 for hired help. 



We shall have to go slowly and carefully in 

 the matter of shortening work, for women are 

 sometimes peculiar in their views — isn't that a 

 happy way of avoiding to say obstinate ? — and 

 many times they prefer having things rounda- 

 bout and laborious, just because the}^ are 



