THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
afforded by bis absence to spend a long quiet 
day at dressmaking, hoping to finish the 
spring gowns of which wo stood dreadfully in 
need. Before the momentous question of 
dress, the minor pleasures of the table sank 
into utter insignificance, and we should have 
tukei\the cold bite at. the pantry shelf, which 
is ■‘supposed to be a woman’s especial privilege 
in the absence of the lords of creation. I say 
“should have” done so, because as it turned 
out, after all, we did have a dinner 
We were hurriedly washing up the breakfast 
dishes when we heard the sudden stopping of 
a carriage, and glancing from the window, I 
saw a load of aunts and cousins in the act. of 
alighting, and realized with a sort of despera¬ 
tion that Auntie Brown and her family had 
driven over to spend the day, To make the 
matter worse, she was Fred’s aunt, and tin's 
was her first visit, since our marriage, ami I 
felt all the pride that is usual with young 
housekeepers in my newly-acquired dignity. 
“Oh, Nettie,” I gasped, “that bone!'’ Now 
Nettie, with her sweet, sisterly sympathy, un¬ 
derstood quite well that my seemingly irrele¬ 
vant remark referred to the solitary beef bone 
that graced our pantry slit If, but she seemed 
to rise to the occasion. “Don’t mention that 
I a in here,” she said, as she gave me a gentle 
push toward the door. “Make your mind 
easy, i’ll get dinner.” Although the quotation 
which Nettie fired at me like a parting shot: 
“ Thou slmlt have a brave dinner, too,” had 
a comforting sound. I could not help thinking 
of the irnqpssibility of making bricks without 
straw. I strove by all the arts in my power 
to make a good impression on my new rela¬ 
tives, but tuy conversational powers were 
seriously impaired by that “bone,” which 
haunted me in all itsgauntnud bareatiutomy, 
like Bauquo’s ghost, and it was with feelings 
of unmixed relief that I led the way to the 
dining-room at the sound of the bell, while I 
inwardly gave thanks that we dined early 
and that the worst would soon be over. And 
the worst, I hud no reason to doubt, would be 
very bad. I knew Nettie had attended a 
cooking school since my marriage, but. I could 
see no possible connection between a cooking 
school and the skeleton of a roast of beef! 
I was prepared for the fact that the table 
should be laid w th the inimitable daintiness 
of my pretty sister, but l was not prepared for 
the several surprises which followed, and of 
which I shall detail the manner of makiug for 
the sake of such of your readers as may at 
sonic time find themselves the victims of a 
like emergency. 
The soup was Cream of Carrots. Eveu see¬ 
ing is not always believing, and my doubting 
mind did not leave me until 1 had tasted. It 
was delicious, and tuy faith in eookiugschools 
is henceforth unbounded. Cover the bones of 
any cold roust meat with two quarts of cold 
water; add one onion sliced and fried in but¬ 
ter, one potato and one turnip, and six medi¬ 
um-sized carrots, all pared and sliced. Sim¬ 
mer until the vegetables are tender; strain 
through a sieve, remove tin* bones and press 
the vegetables through. There should be 
about a quart and a piut. Fut a spoonful of 
butter iu a saucepan, stir in a spoonful of 
flour, and when smooth add the broth, or 
pan e, from which you have skimmed the fat. 
Season with salt aud pepper and add half a 
pint of hot cream It should be as smooth as 
velvet and of the consistency of pea-soup. Its 
richness will depend upon the quantity of 
meat aud bones used, but it is very good with 
little or none. 
The next dish placed on the little shelf of 
the “butler’s window” was a tine salt mack¬ 
erel, br< lied, which I recognised as one that 
was in process of freshening for next day’s 
breakfast. By changing the water frequent¬ 
ly mid afterward by successive parboiliugs, 
each time covering again with cold water and 
changing this just before the boiliug point was 
reached, Nettie had brought it to the proper 
degree of freshness, after which it had been 
broiled and covered with a .sauce made of a 
gill of hot cream, butter, pepper aud minced 
parsley. The appropriate accompaniments to 
this was a dish of stewed potatoes. 
Our piece Oe resistance Was naturally 
enough not what is usually comprehended by 
that term, hut 1 noticed that some of my 
guests could not. resist taking a second help, 
and I wondered where it all came from. To 
me it seemed a case of the loavep and fishes 
over again and little short of tiie marvelous. 
It was a timbale dc spaghetti. Simply the 
sruall-siztd macaroni broken into short lengths, 
boiled in salted water until tender, mixed with 
a cupful of good beef gravy, “for which the 
roast beef gravy came in splendidly,” said 
Nettie, A deep pudding dish was then but¬ 
tered, sprinkled thickly with bread crumbs 
and tilled with the macaroni, leaving a deep 
hole iu the center. This was filled with a 
mince made from the cold roast beef, which 
had been chopped fine, seasoned highly and 
moistened with a little thickened gravy. 
More macaroni was laid over this ami the dish 
put in a moderate oven for half an hour. It 
was turned out on a hot dish aud sent to the 
table with some gravy in a boat. Stewed and 
thickened tomatoes accompanied it. 
I njKsned my eyes at the asparagus omelet, for 
it was still early iu the season for that vegeta¬ 
ble, and Nettie said it was a fib of inspiration 
that prompted her to examine the asparagus 
bed, where she found a few shoots sufficient 
for her purpose. There was a salad of cresses 
from the little stream that ran through our 
garden, and a hot apple tart buttered and 
sugared with cream poured over it, which 
latter with such coffee as only Nettie can 
make, and the pineapple cheese, which is al¬ 
ways on hand iu my pantry, composed our 
dessert. 
I noticed a quizzical look on Cousin Ham’s 
face as we rose from the table. He said: 
“Nettie Armstrong is the only girl iu this 
Stale who can cook a dir tier like that, and I 
am going to tell her so.” From Nettie’s blushes, 
when they reappeared a few moments after¬ 
ward, I concluded that he. had. Still one 
must not judge too hastily. Three hours 
spent over a hot siove might easily account 
for my pretty sister’s somewhat unnatural 
rosiuess. palmetto. 
ONE SUMMER, 
ANNE THRIFTY—l. 
After the “ One Winter ” already sketched 
in The Rural, during which \ kept house for 
Uncle John aud his boys, it seemed hard at 
first to take iny old place at home, as the eldest 
daughter, for Mother expected obedience from 
me as much asfrorn the younger children, and 
though her demands were never unreasonable, 
my winter’s experience made them seem irk¬ 
some at times. 
No doubt, after the fashion of many people 
with a little newly-acquired experience, I was 
needlessly self-important aud critical: but by 
the first of Juue the old at-hume feeling had 
come back. 
Our district school closed in May, and my 
brothers, Fred, and Robbie, nine and seven 
years old. bad nothing to do from morning 
until night but play over the hundred acres of 
laud we owned, or ride with father when he 
went to the nearest town for the mail and such 
farm and liouseln>ld supplies as were not grown 
or made on the farm. This way of spending 
their time troubled me; it threw the boys too 
much in the society of the hired help. Father 
carried on such a variety of work that a great 
deal of help was needed at times when the dif¬ 
ferent crops all pressed for attention at once, 
and at such times he was compelled to take 
what help he t ould get. 
The colored people of our town furnished 
most of this. Half-grown boys were often 
employed, and their black, smiling faces 
and good-natured ways proved very attractive 
to Fred, and Rob.; but the language of these 
interesting aud often very bright boys, was 
not always above reproach. I could not rid 
my mind of constant uneasiness when my 
brothei-s were with them. On the 15th of 
June the school in town closed, and my sis¬ 
ters, Gertie, Nell, and Jennie, were released 
from school duties, aud each took a share of 
the housework, so we all hud some leisure time 
every day. We had no young people in our 
near neighborhood that summer, aud soon fell 
into the fashion of entertaining each other, in 
the long pleasant evenings, after our five 
o’clock slippers. One such evening we wereiu 
the cherry orchard, gleaning the “ dead ripe” 
cherries from the tops of the trees, and eatiug 
them as we gathered them. 
While we were thus engaged, our hired help 
passed out of the front, gate and joined a group 
of laborers from the farms beyond, and they 
all went together toward town, swiugiug their 
tin dinner buckets and raBing the dust with 
their hare feet. At sight of them my worries 
came back, and l laid them all before tny sis¬ 
ters. They increased my anxiety by telling 
me of the profane language some of the boys 
used. “I wish father wouldn’t hire such help,” 
Jennie said savagely. “What better can he 
do.*” Gertie retorted. 
Seeing wo were likely to have a discussion 
of the vexing question of hired help. 1 hastened 
to beg them to think of some plau for keeping 
the boys away from such associates. I do not 
know way we did not appeal to father and 
mother to forbid the boys going to the fields, 
unless Genie’s remark explained it; she said: 
“it will make the boys unhappy ami rebellious 
to forbid them to go into the fields, and, 
besides, I don’t think it would be right to tell 
them the hired help are not fit for them to as¬ 
sociate with. 1 thiuk it would make the boys 
despise them; they will learn as they get older 
who are their social equals without acquiring 
the mean trait of lookiug down ou uuy one.” 
•Yes, but if things go on as they are now,” 
Jennie urged, “they won’t choose their friends 
any better than the Thompson boys do.’ “(Well, 
Mr. Thompson’s !>oys, then”she corrected her¬ 
self at an inquiring exclamation from Nell.) 
“Those boys would rather spend their time 
with the hired men on their father’s farm, 
than with their sisters, who are really nice 
girls, or even with the sons of neighboring 
farmers.” “If Fred and Rob grow up so, 111 
disown them” I said so severely as to quite 
overdo the matter and set the girls all to 
laughing. 
But Nell had our attention the next instaut; 
she had the honor of making the first practi¬ 
cal suggestion. “Why can’t you have a little 
school for the hoys, Annief” she said. “I’m 
afraid their teacher didn’t amount to very 
much, and you can kill two birds with one 
stone.’ C!et them ready to enter school in town 
this fall, and keep them out of the fields, too. 
A round of applause greeted this suggestion, 
at which Nell professed to bo great lv abashed, 
and when we tried to crown her with a wreath 
of clover blooms, she led us on a chase through 
the orchard and into the house before we 
could capture her, and by that time the wreath 
was only a tattered bit of its former self. 
There were obstacles m the way of carrying 
out Nell’s plan. The tioys must be won over 
and mother’s consent obtained. I wanted a 
morning hour from nine until teu, an hour 
when it would be some trouble to spare me 
from the housework I kuew, but no other 
hour would so well answer my purpose. By 
10 o’clock the long, hot walk to the field would 
make the society of the farm hands seem less 
inviting, and we would try to make the house 
and yard attractive for two restless little 
boys. Several days passed by before I found 
the opportunity I sought for a talk with 
Robbie and Fred. 
PITHS. 
dried upon the cake; but if cooked too much 
it will be brittle and scale off when cut; while 
if not cooked enough it will be soft and sticky. 
So I work with my heart in my mouth, as the 
saying goes, till it is finished; even a half a 
minute’s neglect will make a difference when 
it is boiling briskly. 
“When eggs are scarce, I often make frost¬ 
ing of Ihe hoiled sugar, leaving out the egg 
entirely, and 1 never could see but that it was 
just as nice ns it would have been with an 
egg ” MAY MAPLE. 
ii\. rilnncous SUmtisinfl 
The Great Secret 
Of exceptionally long and abundant 
hair may never he solved ; but that 
Ayer’s Ilair Vigor preserves the hair 
in all its beauty and luxuriance, and 
even restores it, when thin and gray, is 
Well Known. 
P. J. Cullen, Saratoga Springs, N. Y., 
writes : “ My father, at about the age of 
fifty, lost all the hair from the. top of his 
head. After one month's trial of Ayer’s 
Hair Vigor, the hair began coming, and, 
in three months, lie had a tine growth of 
hair of the natural color.” 
J. T. Gibson, Ofi Hope st., Huntley, 
Staffordshire, Eng., Says : " I have seen 
young men in South Australia quite 
gray, whose hair has been restored to its 
natural color after using but one bottle 
of Ayer’s Hair Vigor.” 
Ayer’s Hair Vigor, 
Prepared Tiy Dr. J. C. Ayer & To., Lowell, Mass. 
Sold by Druggists and Perfumers. 
Keep young children in out of the night 
air. 
Most babies are fed too often and too much. 
Baby may be suffering for a drink of cold 
water. If you think not, try quenching your 
own thirst with hike-warm milk. 
The most scrupulous care should be given to 
the washing of baby’s bottle and lubber nip¬ 
ple. The long nursing tubes cannot be kept 
clean and therefore should never be used. 
Wash the bottles and rubbers in borax water 
and afterwards in clear water. A good way 
is to have two bottles and rubbers and use on 
alternate days, keeping the ones not iu use in 
the borax water. 
GOSSIP AT THE BAKING TABLE. 
XV ANTE I>.—AG ENTS to sell a ttrst-class and rap¬ 
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to the right kind of men. 
HILL M’F’G CO . Buffalo, Pi. Y. 
(PC lo 88 a day. Samples worth il.50. FREE. 
Lines nor under the horse’s feet. Write 
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lOOO 
FLFGANT LARGE 
TU It IV I-II HUGS 
Given to the LX HIES r.f purchasers of Sample 
Harness with a view of an agency In territory where 
we have no agent. Send for full particulars. 
811 E K WOO I) HA It a ESS CO., Syracuse. N. Y. 
ASTHMA 
and If t r FEl'E It 
can be eurerf only by 
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6i Page Treatite seat Free. Dr. W. B. Hair, Cincinnati, 0. 
HOUSEWIFE'S BOOK OF LABELS 
for Preserves and Jellies. Gummed and Perfor¬ 
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AIKS. e. I, KM EES. 
56 14th sireet. Wheeling. W. Va. 
CAKE TINS, PIE CRUST AND FROSTING. 
Making an informal call the other morning 
upon my “ next door neighbor,” I found her 
engaged in making a steamed pudding for 
diuner, ami I noticed that her pudding dish 
was unusually deep. She said she had it 
made especially for baking fruit cake. She 
thought it was better when baked iu large 
loaves, having a richer flavor aud retaining 
the moisture better. In winter it would keep 
a long time if desired. She had a smaller one 
for summer, but. the tulie had come out, so 
when she baked in it now, she put in a small 
tin pepper ran, with a stone in the bottom to 
hold it in place, and it answered as well as a 
patent tube, and cost a good deal less. 
From cake I taking it was easy to wander 
to the “ inevitable pie” baking. The girl had 
failed to make a flaky crust. She was unused 
to making paste for a single pie, and that was 
all a small family would dispose of while it 
was fresh. My neighbor never measured, but 
took a good handful of lard and worked it 
slightly into a very small quantity of flour, 
and added just as little water as was possible 
to make a paste. 
Of course, this would be very indefinite to 
a learner; but one thing was defiuite for any 
ouc. She never “ flopped” her paste over on 
the moulding board; but kept the same side 
up till it was laid upon the leaking dish; and 
she never failed of having a light, flaky crust, 
when it was baked, and she thought cookies 
were better for receiving the same treatment 
while in paste. 
“ How do you make frosting?” I inquired, 
for I alwajs fancy our village matrons who 
see after their household affairs, uudi rstund 
how to do fancy baking rather better than 
some of their rural sisters who have so many 
other cares. 
"tVhen 1 have powdered sugar 1 beat up the 
white of one egg to a stiff froth ami thicken 
with sugar till it will spread without ruuuing; 
but 1 aui careful not to get it too thick, us 
that makes a very hard crust. 1 like It the 
best, because it is the quickest made. Tins 
rule is for one loaf. But if 1 must use gruuu- 
lated sugar, 1 take one teacupful aud add four 
tablespoonfuls of water and set on the stove, 
and as soon as it begins to l‘oil let it cook just 
four minutes, fake it off ami stir in the white 
of one egg, that has been previously beaten to 
a stiff troth, stirring constantly till it is white, 
then spread on the cake. If it is cooked just 
right it w ill look like a white glazing when 
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