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frequent declarations of a warm and early spring, with no real need to have in winter, and so I did another unheard-of thing. I corned
beef, (fifty pounds, it seemed like fifty head before I finished).
of a stove. Especially, as two days later it snowed, and with the What is left for me now but to weave and spin! T h e nearest
approach here is a rag carpet, and all the rags I burn, through very
rain and cold weather following, I burned myself severely, trying fear!

to keep warm over an oil heater. I nervously felt the D . C.'s were Yet, it is interesting to shut yourself in a kitchen, especially when
you do not shut your thoughts up, too. Pots and pans in assorted
beginning to wreck our home! sizes had such strong resemblances to some children of my past
acquaintance—and ingredients might be thoughts, so that mixed, and
D i d you ever hear of spring house cleaning? It is a frightful seasoned, and cooked, we had Mary Angelina for pudding, and
malady that sweeps over Our Town and when it comes in winter Tommy for a salad. I did realize quite suddenly that little children
it is called Christmas house cleaning. T h e latter is not so thorough, were very ordinary fare, when we might be feasting on whole chap-
as carpets are omitted, due to the snow on the ground. A l l the ters ! Many a meal have we had on you. These cannibal banquets.
D . C.'s tell you most minutely the progress of the day's work (a I never confessed to my husband, but undoubtedly they left a strange
effect on him—for rather frequently have we taken long machine
room a day is the schedule, I believe). By a series of bulletins—it trips, when a good restaurant or hotel was at the other end. Reno
is eighty miles off, and some fear the name, but we have a clear
. must be this—all the housewives in town are kept informed. I do conscience, as we go for something very different.

not know if meals are omitted during this siege, or what happens I feel like the man who was placed behind a wood pile, which,
whenever he attempted to climb, rose to greater heights. After
to the husbands, for there are carpets to tack, curtains to stretch, some thought he concluded to use the saw nearby. T h e pile dimin-
ished speedily, because of sane thinking and a little sawing. There
walls and floors and ceilings to scrub, windows to clean, and pictures is a happy medium in housekeeping, and efficiency here as well as in
to hang. Is this preparedness or insanity? the office. It is wise to be prepared! I have reason to believe the
Queen of Hearts was. Those tarts were stolen, not because a Queen
But I doubt if all the town is thoroughly spring cleaned. There made them, but because they were so good. The reason I know is,
are the Wastes, you know. They arise at nine, and go through that a year ago I became a member of her household.

this form of dressing: H a i r not combed, dress pinned on, shoes

not buttoned. With a strong cup of coffee in one hand, and a piece

of bread in the other they discuss over fence tops the gossip of the

town, and add a little more to make it real interesting and scandalous,

as . . . "Well, Mrs. Stewart has had to come down from

her high horse, and do her own washing. You know, Mrs. White

(the only laundress in town) is giving up all her washing. T h e

last time the Stewart's sent their wash to the city it took three

weeks, and goodness knows how long it will take when the bad

weather sets in. She doesn't know much anyway. Guess it took

her some time with those flannels "

But that line of "heavy flannels" was too great a grievance to
lay at my feet. It is not the work that I am taking offense at, but
the quality of the laundry. My neighbor's line passes my window,
and I know now, that convicts are not alone in wearing wide stripes.
And when it comes to "robes de nuit," vivid pinks and yellows, I
should think, might cause vhnd dreams.

My neighbors have already told you that I am in a quandary

over laundry. But they did not know about bread, a food-stuff that

can not be purchased. "No, no, I will not sell it. But you, you must
make it, and I shall" show you," the little German lady next door
said. You see, she was prepared. "Make bread or starve?" was a
question that I answered with, | f refuse to starve." I wonder now,
how we could ever eat the badly cooked dark-looking loaf, which
the hotel sold us for months. T h e n meat is a commodity impossible