- American Agriculturist, May 26,1923 
“The Other View”—A Story by Lillian Davidson 
Keeping City Boarders This Summer Will Pay—A Cross-Stitch Towel for the Guests Room 
M rs. harper sighed. She was 
looking out into a green, grassy 
yard, with a white picket fence, a few 
beehives, and some morning-glories on 
the fence. Not a bad-looking yard, for 
big trees kept the sun away almost all 
day, and everything was as neat as pos¬ 
sible. ^ Still she sighed. 
“ ’Lias,” she said, “I do wish I could 
have such a back yard as I saw at that 
house—when I went to Sarah’s—it was 
the prettiest place I ever saw.” 
’Lias Harper fidgeted his feet a bit, 
“Wish’t I could see it, you’ve said so 
much about it. I don’t know where it 
can be, though. I thought I knew every 
farm within twenty miles. Was it a 
big white house—bigger’n this?” 
“Yes, it was, a nice big house, tall 
and painted beautiful. And it had 
noble big trees in the back yard, and 
in the front yard too, I think. Trees 
lots bigger’n than ours. Oh yes, a lot 
bigger. And I know the water there 
must be soft, for there was a tea towel 
or something hanging on the clothes 
line, and ’Lias, it was white as snow. I 
never can get mine like that with the 
hard water here.” And she looked to¬ 
wards the line in the yard. 
“Now, Lucy, you’ve got a nice white 
dish towel on your line, and you’ve a tall 
house, and big trees. I don’t believe,” 
doggedly, “there’s a prettier place in 
the country than this.” 
The railroad near them had just been 
completed, and Mrs. Harper had re¬ 
cently taken her first trip over it. In 
order to reach the station, they had to 
drive about five miles, but in making a 
curve, the road ran just the other side 
of a forty-acre field from their home. 
Ever since Mrs. Harper’s return, she 
had described a farm house so very 
beautiful that she longed to live in it. 
She had spoken of the white fence, the 
tall trees, the house, the hollyhocks, 
the vines, until her husband was getting 
a little out of patience. 
The next day, ’Lias returned from 
town seeming very much elated. 
“Lucy,” he said, “I do believe I know 
where your nice farm house is—I do, 
by dacky! It ain’t so awful far away. 
I guess we can go out and see it about— 
le’s see—about Friday. Can you get 
away then?” 
TNDEED I can, ’Lias. I’d leave my 
J. work any time to see that grand 
place again. Can we drive over?” 
“No, we’ll go on the cars—^that’s the 
best way. You said there was a bridge, 
didn’t you, where the railroad crossed 
a river?” 
“Yes, a nice big river, too. Wider 
and bigger than this little muddy 
stream. It was a long bridge—and 
there was some men working there.” 
“Well, Lucy, I guess we’ll lay off and 
go over Friday.” 
“But ’Lias, if I see that place again. 
I’ll feel worse than ever to live here in 
this little low house—I’ll want that 
place worse than ever—” and she sighed 
again. 
“I’ll get it for you, Lucy, if it’s where 
I think it is. I believe I’d like to live 
in that place too,” and he went out 
chuckling. 
The train they took was a freight. 
’Lias said it would stop at the bi’idge, 
so they could get off. 
“How in the world will we get home, 
’Lias?” asked Mrs. Harper. 
“You never mind—we’ll get home. 
Don’t we always get home?” he teased. 
The freight traveled slowly, but 
finally Mrs. Harper pointed in excite¬ 
ment. 
“There it is,” she said, “ain’t it the 
grandest looking place? See the tower¬ 
ing trees, and that green back yard with 
the white picket fence, and the morning 
glories. I do know it is the prettiest 
place in the countiy—” 
“Now Lucy! Don’t jump off before 
the cars stop, there—we’re stopping 
now.” 
The trainman helped them off, and 
-r.e and ’Lias exchanged a sly wink. The 
scramble down the grade was rather 
hard for Mrs. Harper, but she was too 
excited to care, and she also crawled 
through a wire fence, a thing she had 
always said she could not do. Then 
she straightened up, and took a good 
look. The alfalfa field took her eye 
first. 
“Now ain’t this the best alfalfa you 
ever seen, ’Lias? Why, it’s inches 
higher than ours—and look how even! 
Better ground, I think. I wonder if 
these folks will care for us coming right 
up to the house this way?” 
“Not a mite,” said ’Lias, “Rve got 
that all fixed.” 
“My, my—” broke out Mrs. Harper, 
“What noble big trees right over the 
back door! Shady all day, and such 
a good back yard to work in—a thing 
I’ve always wanted. ’Lias, do see them 
beehives, white as marble! The man 
who lives here is a good manager. I’ll 
bet.” 
“Well, I think he is,” said ’Lias dryly. 
“Look at the morning-glories—I do 
love them and we never have any luck 
with them. And what a nice tsig house 
—I’ll wager the chambers upstairs are 
nice and high” she spoke in a low voice, 
as if fearing to be overheard. “Now 
look at that tea towel. ’Lias, I can’t 
get mine white like that in hard 
water.” 
She broke off with a startled look, 
“ ’Lias,”—she stammered, “Why, there’s 
my old washing machine—and the old 
hickory chair. . . .” 
“ ’Lias Hai’per—” looking around— 
“Why this is our own house—and you 
knowed it all the time—and you just 
did this to fool me! Well I swan!” and 
she hurried through the kitchen door. 
’Lias sank down in the old hickory 
chair. 
“Distance makes things look a heap 
bigger—and then, the other view makes 
a difference too. Guess Lucy’ll be satis¬ 
fied now, though,” and he smiled a slow 
smile. 
KEEPING CITY BOARDERS 
I have often read in your paper 
arguments in favor of remaining on the 
farm, and I say “aye.” The farm 
evei’y time! A good living can be had 
from chickens and a cow or two; but 
if the farmer’s wife wants to help 
along still more, let her take a few 
city boarders. I have done so for the 
past few years and I know there is 
money in it. 
Start early in the spring to prepare 
for them. ••Plant a large garden with 
all the different kinds of vegetables-not 
forgetting brusaels sprouts, spinach, 
kohl-rabi, swiss chard and caulifiower 
for you will find a few who will like 
these as well as peas, beans, corn, or 
tomatoes. 
Fix the house and grounds as at¬ 
tractively as possible without going to 
any great expense. Paint all the fioors 
or cover with linoleum. If you use 
paint, use a russet color and then add 
two coats of varnish. They will be 
much ea^er to clean than rugs or 
carpets. 
Put up little sash curtains at your 
bedroom windows, and place in each 
bedroom a dresser, two chairs and 
above all, a comfortable bed. If there 
is no clothes closet, put some hooks on 
the door, or place a curtain across the 
corner of the room with a few hooks 
in the wall behind it. 
Furnish your living room comfortably 
but keep it plain, taking out all bric- 
a-brac. Have plenty of rockers on the 
porch and swings, etc., in the yard. 
The Food is Very Important! 
Now for the “eats!” First, keep your 
table cloth spotless. Use paper nap¬ 
kins, fold them three cornered and 
place a dozen or so in a large glass or 
other holder on each end of the table. 
Our boarders like these better than 
cloth napkins. Put a piece of butter 
and a slice of bread on a bread and 
butter plate at each place. Serve the 
meat and potatoes on the large plates 
from the kitchen. Serve all juicy veg¬ 
etables in individual dishes and all 
others in large dishes. 
For breakfast have eggs in some 
form and about twice a week serve 
meat instead. Besides eggs, we give a 
choice of two cereals, one cooked and 
one uncooked, toast and plain bread, 
coffee, and fruit, either fresh or stewed. 
For dinner, at noon, serve soup, meat, 
two vegetables and dessert and coffee. 
For supper have cold meat, a vegetable, 
a salad, fruit, cake and tea. jBe sure 
to serve a variety. Never serve the 
same meat or dessert two days in suc¬ 
cession, and the same applies to all 
vegetables except corn. City people 
are very fond of sweet corn and you 
cannot serve it too often, but you must 
serve other vegetables with. it. 
Don’t try. to keep less then ten 
boarders, it will not pay. 
If you have a daughter or son to 
help you, you will find you can do the 
work for ten or twelve. Of course it 
will mean hard work, but plan your 
meals and your work ahead. Get up 
early and have all your baking for the 
day done before you serve breakfast 
and it will help you wonderfully. There 
will always be some women among your 
guests who will help you wash the 
dishes and other light work, taking 
care of their rooms and getting veg¬ 
etables ready. Don’t try to do any ex¬ 
tra housework or sewing, just do what 
is most necessary. If you are strong 
and healthy the work won’t be too hard. 
—Mrs. Emma Denton. 
AN EASY TOWEL TO MAKE 
Every woman takes pride in having 
pretty towels on her rack when guests 
come, and fortunately this is a sort of 
embroidery which takes very little time 
and yet shows more effectively than 
almost any other article on which 
handwork can be put. 
The design which is shown this week 
calls for both cross-stitch and solid (or 
eyelet) work. It is bordered by an 
in-and-out running stitch which is easy 
to do, yet adds character to the final 
effect. 
Double hemstitching is illustrated as 
a method of hemming the towel. Stamp 
your design so that an equal length of 
material is left below the part to em¬ 
broider. After working the design, 
fold this over to make the hem and in 
this way the back of the towel does not 
show the unattractive wrong side of 
the embroidery. Then crease the lower 
edge of your hem, draw about five 
threads of material as indicated for 
hemstitching, and finish. 
The other end of the towel may be 
left plain or have a simple cross-stitch 
border, the transfer for which is fur¬ 
nished with the more elaborate one. 
E 11 —cross-stitch towel design, 2 ends, 
will be sent for 12c. in stamps. Address 
Handicraft Department, American 
Agriculturist, 461 Fourth Avenue, 
New York City. 
“GOULASH” 
This is a recipe especially for those 
who do not know what to do with little 
leftovers. First, if you have the broth 
from cooked, fresh meat and do not 
wish to make gravies of it, you can use 
it with the leftovers. 
If you have a bowl of chicken or 
beef gravy, put it in a pan or if you 
have a little of each put in pan to¬ 
gether. Have you a cold boiled potato 
or two? If so, dice them and add, and 
a saucer of peas and beans and corn, 
and a small piece of beef, chopped'fine, 
a stalk of celery minced, a cup of boiled 
rice or macaroni. Then add 1 pint to 
1_ quart of tomatoes, stir and let it be 
simmering on one side of the stove. Now 
mince fine an onion as large as an egg. 
Cover with water and add a small pinch 
of soda. Cook about ten minutes. Pour 
this in with the rest and let all boil 
up. It may need a little seasoning and 
may not. Serve- hot, of course, in in¬ 
dividual dishes. 
Say nothing of what it is to your 
family, and if everything is good, they 
will pronounce it delicious.— Mrs. Ida 
A. Brown. 
The Brown Mouse 
{Continued from page 459) 
his peroration, in which he abjured 
Bronson, Bonner and Peterson to study 
his plan of a new kind of rural school— 
in which the work of the school should 
be correlated with the life of the home 
and the farm. Three sharp spats of 
applause from the useless hands of 
Newton Bronson gave the final touch 
of absurdity to a situation which Jim 
had felt to be ridiculous all through. 
Had it not been for Jennie Woodruff’s 
“Humph!” stinging him to do some¬ 
thing outside the round of duties into 
which he had fallen, had it not been for 
the.absurd notion that perhaps, after 
they had heard his speech, they would 
place him in charge of the school, he 
would not have been there. As he sat 
down, he felt himself a silly clodhop¬ 
per filled with the east wind of his own 
conceit, out of touch with the real 
world of men. The nodding board of 
directors, the secretary, actually snor¬ 
ing, and the bored audience restored the 
field-hand to a sense of his proper 
place. 
_ “We have had the privilege of 
list’nin’,” said Con Bonner, rising, “to 
a great speech, Mr. Prisidint. We 
should be proud to have a borned ora¬ 
tor like this in the agricultural pop’la- 
tion of the district. A reg’lar William 
Jennin’s Bryan. I don’t understand 
•vvhat he was trying to tell us, but some¬ 
times I’ve had- the same difficulty with 
the spaches of the Boy Orator of the 
Platte. Makin’ a good spache is one 
thing, and teaching a good school is 
another, but in order to bring this mat¬ 
ter before the board, I nominate Mr. 
James E. Irwin, the Boy Orator of the 
Woodruff District, and the new white 
hope, f’r the job of teacher of this 
school, and I move that when he shall 
have received a majority of the votes 
of this board, the secretary and prisi¬ 
dint be insthi’ucted to enter into a con¬ 
tract with him f’r the cornin’ year.” 
The seconding of motions on a board 
of three has its objectionable features, 
since it seems .to commit a majority of 
the body to the motion in advance. The 
president, therefore, followed usage, 
when he said—“If there’s no objection, 
it will be so ordered. The chair hears 
no objection—and it is so ordered. Pre¬ 
pare the ballots for a yote on the elec¬ 
tion of teacher, Mr. ^cretary. Each 
votes his prefei-ence for teacher. A ma¬ 
jority elects.” 
F or months, the ballots had come out 
of the box—an empty crayon-box— 
Herman Paulson, one; Prudence Fos¬ 
ter, one; Margaret Gilmartin, one; and 
every one present expected the same 
result now. There was no surprise, 
however, in view of the nomination of 
Jim Irwin by the blarneying Bonner 
when the secretai’y smoothed out the 
first ballot, and read: “James E. Irwin, 
one.” Clearly this was the Bonner 
vote; but when the next slip came forth, 
“James E. Irwin, two,” the Board of 
Directors of the Woodruff Independent 
District were stunned at the slowly 
dawning knowledge that they had made 
an election! Before they had raljiedf 
the secretary drew from the box the 
third and last ballot, and read, “James 
E. Irwin, three.” 
President Bronson choked as he an¬ 
nounced the result—choked and stam¬ 
mered, and made very hard weather of 
it, but he went through with the mo¬ 
tion. 
“The ballot having shown the unani¬ 
mous election of James E. Irwin, I de¬ 
clare him elected.” 
{To be continued next week) 
