Paste Jewels | Page 2

Celtic extraction.
Under such circumstances did the young couple start in life, and many
there were who looked upon them with envy. At first, of course, the
household did not run as smoothly as it might have done- -meals were
late, and served with less ceremony than either liked; but, as Bessie
said, as she and Thaddeus were finishing their breakfast one morning,
"What could you expect?"
To which Thaddeus, with his customary smile, replied "What, indeed!
We get along much better than I really thought we should with old
Ellen."
Old Ellen was the cook, and she had been known to Thaddeus as "Old
Ellen" even before his lips were able to utter the words.
"Ellen has her ways, and Jane has hers," said Bessie. "After Jane has
got accustomed to Ellen's way of getting breakfast ready, she will know
better how to go about her own work. I think, perhaps, cook's manner is
a little harsh. She made Jane cry about the omelet this morning; but
Jane is teary, anyhow."
"It wouldn't do to have Ellen oily and Jane watery," Thaddeus
answered. "They'd mix worse than ever then. We're in pretty good luck
as it is."
"I think so, too, Teddy," Bessie replied; "but Jane is so foolish. She
might have known better than to send the square platter down to Ellen
for an omelet, when the omelet was five times as long as it was broad."
"You always had square omelets, though, at your house--that is,
whenever I was there you had," said Thaddeus. "And I suppose Jane's
notion is that as things happened under your mother's regime, so they

ought to happen here."
"Possibly that was her notion," replied Bessie; "but, then, in your
family the omelets were oblong, and Ellen is too old to depart from her
traditions. Old people get set in their ways, and as long as results are
satisfactory, we ought not to be captious about methods."
"No, indeed, we shouldn't," smiled Thaddeus; "but I don't want you to
give in to Ellen to too great an extent, my dear. This is your home, and
not my mother's, and your ways must be the ways of the house."
"Ellen is all right," returned Bessie, "and I am so delighted to have her,
because, you know, Teddy dear, she knows what you like even better,
perhaps, than I do--naturally so, having grown up in your family."
"Reverse that, my dear. Our family grew up on Ellen. She set the
culinary pace at home. Mother always let her have her own way, and it
may be she is a little spoiled."
"Do you know, Teddy, I wonder that, having had Ellen for so many
years, your mother was willing to give her up."
"Oh, I can explain that," Thaddeus answered. "I'm the youngest, you
know; the rest of the family were old enough to be weaned. Besides,
father was getting old, and he had a notion that the comforts of a hotel
were preferable to the discomforts of house-keeping. Father likes to eat
meals at all hours, and the annunciator system of hotel life, by which
you can summon anything in an instant, from a shower- bath to a feast
of terrapin, was rather pleasing to him. He was always an admirer of
the tales of the genii, and he regards the electric button in a
well-appointed hotel as the nearest approach to the famous Aladdin
lamp known to science. You press the button, and your genii do the
rest."
"But a hotel isn't home," said Bessie.
"A hotel isn't this home," answered Thaddeus. "Love in a cottage for
me; but, Bessie, perhaps you--perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea for you

to speak to Jane and Ellen this morning about their differences. I am an
hour late now."
Then Thaddeus kissed Bessie, and went down to business.
On Thaddeus's departure Bessie's cheerfulness also deserted her, and
for the first time in her life she felt that it would do her good if she
could fly out at somebody--somebody, however, who was not endeared
to the heart of Thaddeus, or too intimately related to her own family,
which left no one but Norah upon whom to vent the displeasure that
she felt. Norah was, therefore, sought out, and requested rather
peremptorily to say how long it had been since she had dusted the
parlor; to which Norah was able truthfully to answer, "This mornin',
mim." Whereupon Bessie's desire to be disagreeable departed, and
saying that Norah could now clean the second-story front-room
windows, she withdrew to her own snug sewing-room until luncheon
should be served. She was just a trifle put out with Norah for being so
efficient. There is nothing so affronting to a young house-keeper as the
discovery that the inherited family jewels, upon