66 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[February, 
feeding the chickens and calves, and washing the 
dairy pans.” Peggy lived with me for two months, 
when I heard of a situation that I thought might 
suit her. She went, but only stayed one week; 
she afterwards lived with a sister of mine, who 
found her the same faithful,- simple-minded, quiet 
person, but as her work consisted of up-stairs 
nursery, dining-room, and kitchen, the same diffi¬ 
culty was experienced as with me, and she left 
there also. For some weeks past Peggy has been 
living in a large seminary for young ladies, where 
I fancy she finds work suited to her exactly— 
washing vegetables and dishes on a large sqjile, re¬ 
quiring little ingenuity, and hardly any responsi¬ 
bility. The Doctor speaks from experience when 
he says an old woman for a servant is a good 
thing. He has living with him now a person who, 
within my recollection, has always been associated 
in my mind as old Jane; why so, I do not know, 
for she does not appear like an old woman, even 
now; perhaps the title is given to her as signifi¬ 
cant of her stability, uprightness, and maturity of 
thought and judgment. She would be a treasure in 
any family. I might challenge the town for a bet¬ 
ter bread and pie maker, or a better cook or house¬ 
keeper. Jane would be dreadfully mortified if the 
Doctor should come home to dinner and find it 
not ready. His candle, which he needs in the even¬ 
ing for attending to the furnace, is always ready. 
The water pitcher is always full, the kitchen is al¬ 
ways clean, the steps are always clean, and her work 
appears always done, so that she is ever ready and 
willing to do any thing extra required. Give me 
such a servant as the Doctor’s wife has, and I 
should have time to do my own sewing, to visit, 
and to write punctually my Household Talks. 
“Any soap-grease to-day, ma’am ?” “No, sir; 
I use my own soap-grease.” “Make your own 
soap ?” “ No, sir.” “ How do you use your own 
soap-grease, then?” “I make it into eggs,” I 
said, smiling. The man looked so astonished and 
half frightened that I thought it time to explain. 
“ I feed the grease and fat which is unfit for cook¬ 
ing to the chickens.” 
The baby is cutting its teeth, and is at times so 
cross that it is difficult to amuse him, and some¬ 
times on this account I am half tempted to regret 
having sent Peggy away. Although the weather 
has been quite cold, I take him out every day, 
sometimes in his little carriage ; and when snow is 
on the ground, I take Willie’s sled and fasten a box 
on the back part, spread over a small Afghan, and 
give him a delightful little sleigh ride. 
This afternoon, while out with baby, I met a 
German or Holland woman. A good chance to try to 
get a girl, I thought. “ Do you live around here ?” 
—“Taw; yust in Brighton.” “ Do you know of a 
girl to work I shouted, (you always shout when 
speaking to a foreigner). “Yaw, yaw, a good one; 
you want one good one ?”—“ Yes,” I said, “ a large 
girl, to do anything—take care of the baby, wash, 
and iron.” “Oh, yaw, she good girl; she wash, 
she iron, she mind the baby. Oh, she good girl, 
yaw; she fit.” “ Is she German?”—“ Oh, no, she 
no German, she Hollands. Oh, she good, she fat.” 
“ When can I sec her?” I said. “Yaw; I brings 
her round dc day after yesterday'.” “ To-day ?”— 
“ No, no to-day ; yesterday I goes to wash for Mr. 
Calver. I can no come, but I pringslier the next 
morning day.” “ Day after to-morrow ?” I shouted. 
“ Yaw, yaw, that is it; the day after to-morrow. I 
prings her; she clean all up for you ; she no Irish ; 
she no German ; she Hollands. Oh, she be good; 
6he fat.” 
When I came into the house I found the sitting- 
room fire nearly out, a very few coals only alive. 
To have put a large quantity of coal upon so small 
a fire would have extinguished it at once, so with 
the tongs I put on gently six or seven small lumps 
of coal; in about ten minutes I put on a shovelful, 
as it was now burning nicely, and I have just put 
on the usual allowance of coal for a good fire. 
How often I have had the fire put out by the girls 
pouring in a large quantity of coal when it was low. 
Economical Cooking—Something out of 
Nothing. 
BT FAITH ROCHESTER. 
It is a favorite axiom with my father that “ You 
can’t get something out of nothing.” I have some¬ 
times felt that my experience in household matters 
almost proved the contrary. Perhaps few readers 
of the Agriculturist know what it is to be too jooor 
to economize. It is such poverty as compels Nellie 
Kay to wear an old silk dress to school this winter. 
The mothers of her playmates think a good calico 
frock would be far more suitable, considering her 
father’s circumstances, or suggest to each other 
that a warm flaunel dress would be better and cheap¬ 
er than anything else. Alas! At Nellie’s house 
there is not a penny to be spared for buying any 
sort of a new dress, and every possible old dress of 
her mother’s lias been made over for her, until there 
is nothing left but the old silks of better days. 
They are learning the sad meaning of debt and in¬ 
terest, and are too poor to economize. 
Taking health and contentment into account, as 
well as money, it is the best economy, under ordi¬ 
nary circumstances, to use a liberal diet, consisting 
largely of fruit and the finer grains. I think peo¬ 
ple are more likely to eat to excess habitually, after 
a few scanty and unsatisfactory meals, than when 
there is little variety iu their fare from day to day. 
The stomach seems to be constantly unsatisfied 
and takes more than a proper amount in the effort 
to get what it craves but cannot find. There are 
lean times in the cupboards of so many homes, that 
I purpose to reveal a few secrets once taught me 
by a severe old schoolmaster named Experience. 
When the cow has gone dry, and the stock of 
butter is getting low, and the hens don’t lay,'and 
the fresh apples are nearly or quite gone, and (worse 
than all, perhaps,) the family purse is very, very 
lean—then what shall a body do ? Receipt books 
are very unsatisfactory at such times. 
Most people use lard and even pork-fat for short¬ 
ening. Some of us do not. Any kind of shorten¬ 
ing needs to be carefully used or it null become an 
abomination. It is not so essential an article in 
cooking as many imagine. Of all kinds I give 
the preference to sweet cream. Pie-crust made 
with lard is whiter, but made with cream it is more 
wholesome. I have heard of shortening pie-crust 
with beans, but have never tried it. People can 
keep alive without pies, especially if they can get 
Dumplings. —Good crust for various kinds of 
dumplings may be made of a part of the dough 
when baking bread. It may be rolled out thin and 
wrapped around the apples, previously pared, 
quartered and cored, or cored without quartering, 
one in each crust. Leave the crust very thin under 
the apple (or it may be heavy), and when made let 
them rise a little before going into the oven. Bake 
slowly. Or, pare, quarter and core fresh apples, 
and put in the bottom of a dish with a little water 
(dried apple sauce is better than nothing, if fresh 
apples are wanting,) and cover with a crust of bre’ad 
dough. It should rise a little before going into the 
oven, and then bake slowly. Graham mush is not 
a bad crust for such a pudding, and boiled rice makes 
a pretty cover when browned by the baking_Or 
bake a thin loaf of bread and split it open when 
done, and spread each half on the split side with 
canned or stewed fruit, or fresh berries in summer, 
piaffing one above the other. It is better, but not 
necessary, to spread the halves first with butter. 
Apple Jonathan differs from the other dump¬ 
lings chiefly from being made in a pot or kettle. 
I first made its acquaintance under the name of 
“ Pot apple pie.” Invert a plate in the bottom .of 
the pot. Put in sliced or quartered fresh apples. 
Pour over them maple molasses if y^u have it, if 
not, add sugar enough to sweeten well. Add a tea¬ 
cup of water and nutmeg or allspice. Over this 
around the ridge of the pot put strips of crust, 
cover tightly and boil over a moderate fire. [This 
is what is called “ Pan-dowdy,” in some parts of 
New England.—En.] 
Steamed Bread and Butter Pudding. —Place 
slices of bread and butter in the bottom of a pud- 
ding dish, a layer of sliced apples with sugar and 
nutmeg, another layer of bread and butter, tlien one 
of apples, sugar and spice, until the dish is full, 
having bread and butter at the top, buttered side 
down. Cook thoroughly in a steamer. 
Pudding Sauce. —Cream sweetened and flavored 
is a favorite dressing, and maple syrup is beyond 
praise ; but when cream is scarce and maple syrup 
lacking, good sauce may be made after the receipts 
given in the last volume of the Agriculturist , only 
plainer as one’s necessities require.. . .For bread 
hastily made nothing can surpass 
Gems. —They are cheap, easily made,-wholesome 
and palatable. Graham flour and water are stirred 
together to the consistency of a thick pancake bat¬ 
ter, aud baked iu the iron or tin gem-pans. Every¬ 
body should have these bread-pans. Gems, wheth¬ 
er of Grdham meal, fine flour or corn meal, should 
be put into a hot oven. Success depends on this. 
Fine flour aud sweet milk (skimmed milk is good 
enough), well beaten together, rather thicker than 
the Graham batter, makes a very sweet and good 
kind of warm bread. Corn bread of the best kind 
can be made without eggs or shortening, or sweet¬ 
ening. Simply scald the meal with boiling water, 
add a little salt, stir well and bake quickly' in the 
gem-pans. IVe thought the Graham and white gems 
must have salt, until we found that its absence 
was not observed, and then we discarded it, as it 
seems an unreasonable amount of salt is eaten 
under the plea of a little salt being necessary. 
Cake. —This is not one of the necessaries of life, 
but good cake is seldom refused. There are a few 
ways of making it quite cheaply and satisfactorily. 
Bread Cake of every grade is good if carefully 
made. The regular receipt as given me by a dear 
old playmate, reads: “ One and a half cup of 
dough, one cup of sugar, one-half cup of butter, 
two eggs, one-half teaspoonful of soda. Raisins and 
spice to suit the taste. Mix with the hands until 
the dough seems thoroughly worked in, adding a 
little more flour if the dough is thin. Let it rise 
half an hour. It rises slowly and but little before 
going-into the oveu.” This is very nice. We have 
eaten it with a relish when minus eggs and raisins, 
and with only a tablespoonful of butter, aud a little 
clove, cinnamon or nutmeg for flavor. 
Bachelor’s Cake is plain and good. “One and 
a half cup of sugar, one cup'of milk, two table- 
spoonfuls of butter, two eggs, one teaspoonful 
cream of tartar, one teaspoonful of soda, three cups 
of flour.” This makes two loaves_A queen 
among women, once treated me with cake made as 
follows : One cup of sweet milk, one cup of sugar, 
two cups of flour prepared with Horsford’s powder. 
The loaf was split and the halves spread with canned 
strawberries, and one half laid above the other. 
Plain Rice Pudding. —Half a piut of rice, one 
quart of milk, half a pint (or less) of sugar, nut¬ 
meg or cinnamon. Bake it slowly two hours. Tap¬ 
ioca may be cooked in the same way, after soaking 
in warm milk for an hour or two; and Sago, after 
thoroughly washing and soaking- over night, is good 
in the same fashion. It is possible to dilute the 
milk one-half and yet have the pudding good, if 
care is exercised in soaking and cooking. 
Soap.— It is convenient sometimes to know how 
to make soap quickly, when there is little grease 
and no leach set up. Make a white ley by boiling- 
wood-ashes with water and pouring off the liquid 
after it has settled. When this Icy is boiling, add 
all the grease (previously tried out—lard or tallow, 
or drippings) it will “take.” Boil it together, try¬ 
ing frequently a little in a saucer, until you find it 
thickens as you stir it, and it cools. If you cannot 
make it “ come,” addalittle water to a small quan- . 
tity in your saucer. If that thickens it, do the same 
with that in the kettle. If not, try adding ley to i 
a portion, and then to the whole, if that makes the 
small portion tried “ come.” 
All the above is written for the benefit of those 
who know what it is to be “ in a pinch.” I don’t 
envy those who have never had that experience. 
It quickens the wits and deepens the sympathies, 
but it is not a good way to live—long at a time. 
