.1*14. 
THE KUKAL 
NEW-YOK E EH 
1423 
IN THE WARM HEART OF THE WEST. 
I* ART I. 
T IIE heart of the West had called 110 , 
and like the disciples of old, we heed¬ 
ed the call. It was a very new West, 
when we first stepped forth upon the vir¬ 
gin soil, the soil which had never been 
harrowed by the plows of Progress, nor 
trodden by the feet of the white man or 
woman. Countless buffalo bones strewed 
the prairies, countless “wallows” and 
"runs” proved that not long since the 
great herds of wild creatures had home¬ 
steaded the plains and called them their 
own. The Summer was like one great, 
glorious picnic, the surprises on every 
hand, the wonderful flower bloom, the 
pebbles bright as jewels in the creeks, 
the upturned sod, the very cream of all 
creation, and the sundry and divers rel¬ 
ics of the aborigines, bits of broken 
pipes, arrow heads of flint, of steel, stone 
hammers, and in fact all the strange, 
wonderful things a new country offers to 
its devotee. 
Came Winter, came the near approach 
of Christmas, and the sunny plains 
scarcely touched with snow, stretched 
into infinity, and the lonesome-hearted 
knew the broadness of the separation of 
their own lives from the lives of those 
they loved. Mrs. Lonesome slipped on 
her coat, tied a heavy scarf over her 
head and went out into the great wide¬ 
ness of the prairies. Her feet almost un¬ 
consciously carried her to the shack of 
a neighbor near by at half a mile, as 
close as a neighbor might be, unless the 
homestead shacks were built just across 
contiguous lines. Mrs. Lonesome finding 
herself at the door of Mrs. Sweet, 
knocked lightly and entered to the cordial 
voice calling from within. 
"I was just thinking about you, Mrs. 
Lonesome, and veiling jou were here,” 
Mrs. Sweet spoke vibrantly. “Sit down 
close to me!” 
Mrs. Lonesome obeyed, looking wonder- 
ingly at the wild array of scraps lying 
about the little kitchen, which was liv¬ 
ing room, dining room, gen ral room and 
all combined in one the real heart of a 
real home. 
“It smells Christmassy here,” Mrs. 
Lonesome volunteered, sniffing the fra¬ 
grance of spices. 
“It is Christmassy,” declared Mrs. 
Sweet. “I believe we are to have the 
very best Christmas of our whole lives!” 
“You are?” wistfully, “why we aren’t 
going to have any Christmas. I told the 
children a week ago that Santa Claus did 
not come out to the plains- the chimneys, 
nothing but stovepipes, are too small !” 
"You didn't spoil the children’s right 
to Christmas that way!" protested Mrs. 
Sweet. 
“Well, what could I do? Better to be 
prepared than hope to the end and then 
have the very dismallest time—on the 
day itself!" 
“It won’t be spoiled. Come over and 
share our Christmas,” Mrs. Sweet 
paused a moment. “Why couldn’t we 
have a community Christmas? All meet 
together, each one contribute to the great 
dinner and—" Mrs. Sweet’s eyes were 
glowing, with the love of all mankind, 
for unto her had the Child been born, 
which had saved her from herself. 
“That would be great!” agreed Mrs. 
Lonesome, “but about the tree and the 
presents?” 
"I'm going to have a tree!” declared 
Mrs. Sweet, although the idea hadn’t oc¬ 
curred to her until that very minute. 
“You’ll see! And presents! Look here! 
Here is a pair of Jim’s old trousers, 
awfully good thick cloth but worn out 
for him, in spite of many mendings. I 
was going to cut these up into mittens, 
and give them around to different ones, 
but I believe there’s enough of the bet¬ 
ter parts to make Timmy Smith a pair 
of new little trousers; it’s time lie had 
some, he’s too big for dresses, but they 
just can’t get him any new clothes!” 
Mrs. Sweet was joyful. 
“I should say! And then there’ll be 
some smaller pieces to out into small 
mittens, or slippers! Why, do you know, 
my old grandmother makes the most de¬ 
lightful slippers from heavy cloth? She 
has a real pattern, which I will get. and 
she lines them and sticks pieces of cloth 
together with cold water flour paste, 
presses these with hot irons until quite 
dry, cuts out her sole by a pattern, 
stitches ami stitches and stitches these, 
until they are very solid, and the slip¬ 
pers are just great for the house or bed 
slippers, or for the Johns and Jims and 
Tims to wear after the long days out of 
doors." 
“I have a real mitten pattern,” Mrs. 
Sweet responded and she drew forth a 
bit of paper, and a moment later a pair 
of mittens which she had finished. Every 
stitch she had taken seemed like an orna¬ 
ment to the material, and the seams of 
the heavy cloth had been "hall-stitched” 
to a firmness and flatness seen seldom 
save on the covering of a ball. The mit¬ 
tens had a flaring gauntlet cuff, which 
was firmly bound, and short bits of 
feather stitching on the mitten back gave 
it the look of a real boughten article. 
"You did that out of old scraps?” 
Mrs. Lonesome spoke almost in awe. 
"Yes, and thanks be, there are a good 
many scraps to he used too, in our fam¬ 
ily, though I do buy skimpily and cut to 
the extreme limit of economy.” 
The canvass of the neighborhood fol¬ 
lowed that same day, and the day fol¬ 
lowing saw women from all points of the 
compass converging to the home of the 
Sweets; they must work while the chil¬ 
dren were in school, and before the early 
chore time eaine, and work they did. If 
one family needed what another had in 
overabundance it was supplied, and so it 
went; not a single soul in all that lit tle 
community of homesteaders, pre-empters 
or tree claim holders was unthought of. 
Even the bachelors were remembered and 
brought into the warmth of the West, 
and the Christmas spirit hovered over all. 
“The tree, the tree!” cried Mrs. Lone¬ 
some. “Where is the tree coming from?” 
“It’s coming,” Mrs. Sweet encouraged. 
“I believe I will tell, it’ll be just that 
much more joy for all of us to get it 
ready! We’re going to make a tree!” 
This bomb burst one afternoon shortly 
before Christmas Day. “Make a tree!” 
gasped the wondering women. 
“Look here!” and Mrs. Sweet led the 
way to the barn. “Here's the tree!” and 
she displayed with high pride, a two by 
four scantling, cut to just go in the 
door of the shack, and to reach to its 
very ceiling. “We are going to put on 
cross pieces, and branches, and we’re go¬ 
ing to decorate it with green tissue pa- 
per—I have some left, over from paper 
flowers I used to make back East.” 
"Why,” cried Mrs. Lonesome, “I’ve 
thought of something. Let's take the 
sticks out of our window shades and use 
them for branches; we could build up 
such a tree with them! Then we could 
use them in our shades after it was all 
over again!” 
"What an idea !” gloried Mrs. Sweet, 
and Mrs. Jamison cried. “Oh, I’ve some 
of the loveliest green cloth, I colored it 
from an old sheet for carpet rags, and 
it will help to drape curtain sticks into 
real life and lcafiness!” 
“Yes, indeed!” supplied Grandma Pnt- 
tersoh, “and why couldn’t we collect 
up a lot of tumbleweeds, and crystallize 
them with alum, or even dip them in 
flour? Why, they’d look like Winter, and 
frost, and snow and Christmas!” 
“Well, of all things!” came a chorus, 
and the Christmas tree, itself held the at¬ 
tention of all for a few days. The Sweet 
home was finally given over entirely to 
it. The children were blindfolded, to 
lead them through the mystic room where 
the Christmas tree was growing in a way 
of its own. Never had a tree been so 
fearfully and wonderfully made, and 
never had one so grown out of the very 
hearts of its creators as did this one, 
save dozens of others which grew lip 
from the seed of it, for its fame spread 
far and wide, and the great tide of Christ¬ 
inas good cheer was flooding the hearts 
of the plains people with the gladness 
love and peace and good will always 
bring. ROSE 8EELYE-MILLER. 
Variety in Plain Living. 
T HE bulletin oti “The Planning of 
Meals,” by Isabel Bcvicr, issued by 
the University of Illinois, gives 12 menus, 
using, each time, four staple foods, beef, 
potatoes, cabbage and apples. These 
staples are cooked differently in each 
menu, and we think they will be found 
very suggestive in providing changes 
from “the same old thing:” 
1.—Porterhouse Steak, Mashed Potato, 
Cabbage Salad with Nuts. Baking Pow¬ 
der Biscut, Apple Pie, Coffee. 
-•—Tongue, Cabbage and Potato Sal¬ 
ad, Popovers, Apple Turnovers with 
Grnij|iK Tea. 
3. — Roast Ribs of Beef. Baked Potn-" 
toes, Cabbage Salad (Sour Cream Dress¬ 
ing), Plain Bread, Baked Apples with 
Cream, Coffee., 
4. —Creamed Dried Beef, Stuffed Po¬ 
tatoes, Creamed Cabbage with Peppers, 
Graham Muffins, Brown Betty with 
t '/ream, Coffee. 
5. —Shepherd’s Pie, Creamed Cabbage, 
White Muffins, Apple Sou file with 
Whipped Cream, Cocoa. 
0.—Corned Beef. Boiled Potatoes, 
Boiled Cabbage, Butter Rolls, Apple 
Pudding, Coffee. 
7.—Short Ribs. French Fried Pota¬ 
toes, Steamed Cabbage, Apple Dumplings 
and Cream, Graham Gems, Coffee. 
N. Rolled Stuffed Steak, Browned Po¬ 
tatoes, Hot Slaw. Baked Apples, Cream, 
Jelly, Nuts, Coffee. 
O. —Hamburg Steak, Riced Potatoes, 
E calloped Cabbage, Graham Bread, Ap¬ 
ple Tapioca, Coffee. 
10. —Corned Beef Hash, Potatoes with 
Butter and Parsley, Cabbage an Gratin, 
Entire Wheat Muffins, Dutch Apple 
Cake, Lemon Sauce, Tea. 
11. —Beef Loaf, Creamed Potatoes, 
Gold Slaw, Nut Bread, Dutch Apple 
Cake with Cream, Coffee. 
12. —Pan Broiled Flank Steak, Eseal- 
loped Potatoes. Fried Cabbage, French 
Rolls, Apple Short Cake and Cream, 
('ocoa. 
Another Connecticut Election 
Cake. —At night take three cups of milk, 
two of sugar, one of yeast, eight cups of 
flour, patent. In the morning, if light, 
add 2 Yi cups sugar, two of shortening, 
two eggs, two nutmegs, or a little cin¬ 
namon in place of part the nutmeg, a 
little soda. Work together, add raisins. 
Put in tins till light. This makes five 
loave8. MBS. W. L. D. 
. 
Potato Pie.—P eel and boil enough 
potatoes for one meal, until tender, drain 
and mash until smooth, add salt and pep¬ 
per, butter the size of egg or more if 
you like, add cream or rich milk until 
quite thin, or too thin for table use; 
last but not least two onions «ut fine 
and mixed through the potatoes. Make 
a rich biscuit dough, roll thin, place a 
crust in bottom of baking pan, pour the 
mashed potatoes in crust and place crust 
over top. Prick with a fork and bake 
in hot oven. mrs. major. 
“I reckon,” said Farmer Gorntossel, 
"as bow mebbe barbed wire ought to be 
counted as one of the most useful inven¬ 
tions of the age.” “For what reason?” 
“When there’s a lot o’ work to he done, 
barbed wire makes it impossible to look 
on.”—Washington Star. 
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