6i8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 7 
From Day to Day. 
DISAPPOINTMENT 
Good Fortune in disguise 
Crept shyly to my door; 
Want In her haggard eyes, 
Grief in the garb she wore. 
How should I know the guest 
Who came so poorly drest? 
With fear I let her In 
Who would not be denied: 
No greeting did she win 
No welcome to my side— 
This uninvited guest, 
Who stole away my rest. 
But in the morning light, 
Another face was there; 
1 saw a visage bright, 
A beauty strange and rare. 
My dear, deceitful guest 
Had put my faith to test. 
Now Joy and I are friends. 
Who thought to be estranged; 
Now Fate hath made amends. 
And all the world is changed. 
For since 1 knew my guest, 
I find her gifts the best. 
—F. W. Clarke, in the Independent. 
A GIRL may be permitted to long for 
the unattainable If such longing does 
not induce her to pass all the housework 
over to her mother. 
• 
One experimenting housekeeper has 
decided that the proper way to lay mat¬ 
ting is to sew the widths together like 
carpet, instead of fastening the joins 
down with double tacks. This would 
certainly simplify the taking up of the 
matting, preventing tearing, but it 
means a good deal of extra work. 
* 
Knitting or crocheting small shells 
into drapery makes a picturesque ma¬ 
terial for decorating. At the Florida 
beaches last Winter many young women 
found this a pleasant occupation. The 
small pearly shells were gathered, the 
sort that is usually found with a little 
hole in each; if such was wanting, it 
was supplied. They were then caught 
regularly in the meshes of a coarse silk 
crocheting, a strand of rich yellow 
showing with a specially good effect. 
Red and gray were also used. One in¬ 
dustrious woman knitted a long curtain, 
measuring three yards, in this way. The 
same shells are to be found at many 
northern beaches, and the experiment 
may be tried in Summer as well. 
• 
A VERY useful piece of furniture de¬ 
scribed by the Boston Beacon is an ex¬ 
ironing table. This is one of the tables 
bought in the shops for from $2 up and 
which with the broad table tipped back 
forms a high backed settle with a deep 
box below the narrow seat. The tables 
are in the natural wood without finish 
when purchased. The woman who finds 
hers of such value painted it green, up¬ 
holstered it by tacking a covering over 
a thin stufldng upon the back and seat, 
and now the settle is a picturesque fea¬ 
ture of her dining-room. When the 
back is turned down for a table it is 
most convenient for cutting or work 
of different kinds, and the box under 
the seat holds any number of things for 
which there seems to be no other place. 
* 
The Norfolk jacket is with us again, 
and makes a nice useful suit with a 
walking skirt, especially suitable to an 
unformed or girlish figure. The jacket 
is made with a yoke back and front, one 
pleat running from the yoke to the 
lower edge of the jacket in the back, the 
belt outside this pleat, and two similar 
pleats in front, with the belt passing un¬ 
der them. The newest of long skirts is 
called the serpentine, which is some¬ 
thing like a revival of the old bell skirt. 
It tapers down to just below the knees, 
where it fiares out very full. Many of 
these skirts have a fiounce, not very deep 
In front, but rising to a much greater 
depth in the back. Of course such a 
skirt needs a swirl of ruffles under it 
from the knees down, to make it hang 
properly. This is the reason, no doubt, 
why the short walking skirts are now 
cut without the flare, because no one 
wishes to wear a chaos of frills under 
a garment designed for bad weather or 
active exercise. 
* 
ToAST-making appears a very simple 
art, yet many housekeepers never seem 
to strike the right medium between 
flabbiness and cinders. If the bread is 
very quickly browned over on the out¬ 
side, the interior remains damp, and 
we find that the butter lies on the top 
in the form of hot oil. To make good 
toast, the slice of bread should first be 
warmed on both sides without brown¬ 
ing, and then browned slowly. Prop¬ 
erly, dry toast should never be laid flat 
upon a plate, because the condensing 
steam makes it damp and tough, but 
toast racks, in which the slices are held 
on edge by vertical bars, are rarely seen 
houses are too good to come down, so 
the boys and girls (or some “city farm¬ 
er’’) will tack on “bow windows’’ and 
other frills as more in keeping with our 
modern age. There was usually a long 
shed running from house to barn so that 
the farmer could go out and look at the 
“creatures” in the tie-up without facing 
the storm. They were mindful of com¬ 
fort when these houses were built, and 
there was a Winter’s supply of dry wood 
in the shed. In many of the big barn 
doors two other doors wei’e cut—one 
swung open for the men folks and the 
other at the oottom for the cat. It was 
a serious matter to pass the husk mats 
at the back door without leaving on 
their rough coats the dirt which might 
otherwise be tracked upon the kitchen 
floor. The big stone wall was another 
feature of the New England front yard. 
When Father and the boys could find 
nothing else to do they picked up big 
stones—^thus entailing a job on the pres¬ 
ent generation. The old men called i. 
“good for sore eyes” to see their fields 
cleared, but now their great stone piles 
are truly eyesores to those who follow 
them, and these monuments to labor are 
put underground or broken up to pro¬ 
vide road metal. In Massachusetts, 
where this old house is located, the elec- 
. .. 
A WOMEN’S FARMHOUSE IN MASSACHUSETTS. Fig. 271. 
on American tables. The toast rack 
usually forms part of an English break¬ 
fast service, being made of china or 
silver. 
* 
Catsup making is upon us, and we 
simplify the work very much by seeing 
that bottles, corks, sealing wax, etc., are 
all at hand, and in good condition. Soak 
the corks in boiling water; drive them 
well into the bottles while they are still 
hot, and then cover the cork with seal¬ 
ing wax. Over this tie two thicknesses 
of cloth, and then saturate the cloth 
with wax. Seal the catsup while hot, 
and when cold put in a cool, dry, dark 
place, resting the bottles on their sides. 
Cook catsup in a granite or porcelain 
kettle, and stir with a wooden or silver 
spoon. We like to make catsup early 
in September, before the fruit gets 
watery, yet try to avoid very warm 
weather, which leads to fermentation. 
Overripe fruit should never be used in 
catsup, any more than in jelly or pre¬ 
serve. 
Farm Home in Massachusetts 
Those of our readers who have ever 
been in rural New England will quickly 
recognize the type of farmhouse shown 
at Fig. 271. It was in just such houses 
that the best blood of Yankee land was 
born and reared. There is something 
about the whole place that advertises 
the solid character of the New Eng¬ 
lander of the past generation. The com¬ 
fortable house, without trimmings or 
adornment, was built by sober men and 
women who held strong and severe 
ideas of duty toward family and coun¬ 
try. Usually the timbers in these old 
trie railroads are stretching out over 
the old country highways, and changing 
the whole aspect of affairs. As the cars 
go whirling over the country they sow 
the seeds of a new order of things. It is 
like tearing away the curtain which 
kept the old time life and habits apart 
from the busy town. The houses are 
painted and made over, the stone walls 
disappear, flowers spring up in the yard, 
and slowly but surely the old type of 
the New England home is passing away. 
The changes are on the outside, how¬ 
ever, for the family feeling, the thrift 
and loyalty are still there. There is not 
enough electricity in a trolley wire to 
change that. The home figured in the 
picture has now descended to two wo¬ 
men, who aim to farm on modern lines, 
while preserving their loyalty to the 
older traditions of the good Bay State. 
Household Notes. 
What experienced housekeeper has 
not been disturbed by seeing a careless 
person scrub a floor, using the first 
broom at hand, which was generally the 
newest one, and jamming the broom 
into a pail not half large enough to ad¬ 
mit it without doing serious damage? 
This operation is continued to the end 
of the job, and nearly to the finishing 
of the broom. 
In warming up potatoes, a favorite 
dish this time of the year, after they are 
sliced into the spider and seasoned, a 
convenient and expeditious way is to 
use a baking powder can to chop them 
up. It will do much more execution 
than a knife in the same time. 
'Sometimes when making a batch of 
cookies or doughnuts, by mistake they 
are made too rich, so that when put in¬ 
to the hot lard to fry they absorb too 
much grease and prove to be a failure. 
If the dough is laid aside in a cold place 
until the next day the trouble will be 
done away with. 
I have often noticed a little act of 
thoughtlessness which ought not to oc¬ 
cur; in a church or hall, when many 
people are gathering in the usher brings 
perhaps one pei-son to an empty pew, 
and that person sits down in the place 
nearest the entrance, and others who 
come later must crowd past her, or per¬ 
haps she will move enough to accommo¬ 
date that one, and so on, when if the 
first one would take the farther end of 
the seat more people could be comfort¬ 
ably seated. A little thought for the 
convenience of others would seem de¬ 
sirable. 
An enthusiastic sweeper will often 
seize a broom and bring it down with 
a circular motion, sending all the avail¬ 
able dust into the air to choke all pres¬ 
ent and then settle back on the furni¬ 
ture, making extra needless work. 
Here is a recipe for Henrietta’s bread 
pudding: One pint bread crumbs, one 
pint milk with tablespoonful of butter 
and pinch of cinnamon; three spoonfuls 
sugar. Heat up and pour hot over the 
bread crumbs. When cool enough stir 
ia one egg, yolk and white beaten sep¬ 
arately, and bake 20 or 30 minutes. 
Raisins or other fruit to your taste. 
AUNT RACHEL. 
Preparing Grape Juice. 
The recipe for canning grape juice in 
a late R. N.-Y., though it gives the pure 
unwatered juice, would, I fear, deter the 
ordinary housewife, who probably ha.s 
no cider or jelly press, as it seemed a 
little difficult. We use a good many gal¬ 
lons every Summer put up easily this 
way: Cover the grapes with water, 
mashing as they come to a boil, press 
out the juice, add one-third cupful of 
sugar to a quart, let it just boil up, and 
can or bottle. If bottled be sure to soak 
the corks an hour at least before putting 
in, so that they will shrink in. When 
cold dip in melted beeswax all over the 
cork. When using add one-third to one- 
half cold water; sugar if you wish it 
sweeter, and ice. e. c. o. 
If thou workest at that which is be¬ 
fore thee—following right reason seri¬ 
ously, vigorously, calmly, without allow¬ 
ing anything else to distract thee, but 
keeping thy divine part pure as if thou 
wert bound to give it back immediately 
—if thou boldest to this, expecting noth¬ 
ing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with 
thy present activity according to nature 
and with heioic truth in every word 
and sound which thou utterest, thou wilt 
live happy. And there is no man who 
i.s able to prevent this.—Marcus Aure¬ 
lius. 
