The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, April 1884, No. 7Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Religion
The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, April 1884, No. 7
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
As for little Sibyl, Aunt Fanny judged, after full consultation with
her confidential adviser, Belle, that Sibyl had better stay where she
was—at the Grammar School. Aunt Fanny went down and made a state call on
Miss Throckmorton, the teacher of the school, and also saw Miss Bell,
the sewing teacher. She explained to them that while she did not want
to break any school rules, she should be well pleased to have as much
attention as possible given to Sibyl’s sewing. Miss Bell was really
pleased with the attention. She said a good many parents did not seem to
care anything about it. But if Sibyl would really give her mind to it,
she would see that she was able, before she left them in the spring, to
cut and fit a frock for Aunt Fanny or for her sister. And before they
went to Wisconsin, it proved that Miss Bell was as good as her word to
her little friend, and Sibyl made a very pretty dress for Aunt Fanny,
before she left school.
III.
As Aunt Fanny herself made her inquiries into these practical matters,
she resolved to try an experiment, which she would have laughed at when
she left Wisconsin. She was asked to a lunch party of ladies one day, and
was a little amused and a little amazed at first, when she observed how
much they said about what they had to eat. Aunt Fanny had been trained
to a little of the western ridicule of Boston, and had supposed that a
bubble rechauffée or a fried rainbow was the most material article that
anybody would discuss. And here these ladies were volubly telling of the
merits of oysters in batter and oysters in crumbs—of one and another way
to serve celery—in a detail which Aunt Fanny found quite puzzling, and,
indeed, quite out of place in the manners to which she had been bred,
which had taught her never to criticise what was on the table.
Perhaps her silence showed her surprise. This is certain, that all of a
sudden a very pretty and gay Mrs. Fréchette turned round and said, “Here
is Mrs. Turnbull, horrified because we talk so much of what we eat. Dear
Mrs. Turnbull, it is not what we eat, it is the cooking we care for.
You must know we have all been to the Cooking Schools—all who are not
managers.”
Aunt Fanny confessed that she had been puzzled a little, and Mrs.
Fréchette and Mrs. Champernom, her hostess, explained. In point of fact
this very lunch had been cooked, “From egg to apple,” as the Romans would
say, by Mrs. Champernom and her two daughters. It may be worth while,
therefore, to give the bill of fare:
Raw Oysters on the shell.
Bouillon in cups.
Scalloped Lobster in its own shell.
Quails on Toast, with White Sauce.
Sweet Breads, with Green Peas.
Capons, with Salad.
Ice Creams. Frozen Pudding. Jelly.
Fruit. Coffee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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