The Tables Turned; or, Nupkins Awakened. A Socialist Interlude

d "saucy," in moments of domestic stress, or to ask boldly for other holidays than her alternate Sunday and Thursday afternoons, or to resent at all times the intrusion of any person, even h

ch, and to let Lizzie slip out for a walk with her sister in the evening, and to keep out of the kitchen herself as much

t afford to tolerate it. She liked to go into the kitchen herself every morning, to eye the contents of icebox and pantry, and decide upon n

ox. She turned on rushing faucets, rattled dishes in her pan. Yet Mrs. Salisbury felt that she must personally superintend these matters,

wled at the introduction of the topic, glanced restlessly at his paper, murmured that Lizzie might be "fired"; and, when Mrs. Salisbury had resolutely bottled up he

er of the house, was equally incurious

ws it," Alexandra would declare gaily; "I can't tell you how I'd mana

ecognized the old, homely subjects under their new names, and so the daughter felt a lack of interest, and the mother a lack of sympathy, that kept them from understanding each other. Alexandra, ready to meet and conquer all the troubles of a badly managed world, felt that one small home did not present a very terrible problem. Poor

nteresting only when they needed it for new gowns, or matinee tickets, or tennis rackets, or some kindred purchase. They needed it desperately, asked for it, got it, spent it

to the kitchen by appearing to ask for instructions before breakfast was fairly over. Wh

s for dinner, M

er, stir her cooling coffee. The memory of last night's vegetables woul

mb left, wasn't th

on Lizzi

And the boys had Perry White in, you know. There's

imagine the platefu

joint on the platter, Lizzie, there are

zie would answer br

rs. Salisbury would decide hastily. "I'll order someth

s, enough for lunch," Liz

bury would sigh. Every housekeeper knows that ther

need b

n! Those two

y last cake of soap, and we need crackers, and vanilla, and su

Mrs. Salisbury would pencil a long list, would bite

you did last time; there must have been a cupful of melted butter. And, another tim

fter I'd had my dinner. You couldn't do much with those. And, as for butter on the asparagus"-Lizzi

uld return to her paper. "But I don't care, we cannot afford it!" Mrs. Salisbury would say to herself, when Lizzie had gone, and very thoughtfully she would write out a check payable to "cash." "I

sponge cake, sponge cake and cup cake all the year round. Nothing was ever changed, no unexpected flavor ever surprised the palates of the Salisbury family. May brought strawberry shortcake, December cottage pu

lls go up!" frett

of almost every maid they had ever had-of lazy Annies, and untidy Selmas

Crosby's again, and facing that awful row of them, and beg

oment in reflection, arresting the hand with which she was polishing silver. Alexandra was only sixteen

ued Mrs. Salisbury, "but we only had her two months. Then she got a place where there were no children, and left on two days' notice. And when I think of the others!-the Hungarian girl who boiled two pairs of Fred's little brown socks and darkened the entire wash, sheets and napkins and all! And the colored girl who drank, and the girl who gave us boiled rice for dessert whenever I forgot to tell her anything else! And then Dad and I never will forget the woman who put pudding sauce on his mutton-dear me, dear me!" And Mrs. Salisbury laughed out at the

ining school for house servants?" Sandy h

to good homes! Do Pearsall and Thompson ever have any difficulty in getting girls for the glove factory? Never! There's a line of them waiting, a block long, every time they advertise. But you may make up your mind to it, dear, if you get a

ou have to deal with, Mother," the younger Sand

ime in housework and cooking for something less than three hundred dollars a year. Her eyes were beginning to be opened to the immense moral and social questions that lie behind the simple pref

er woman's attitude was tinged with affectionate contempt, and when the stupidity of the maid, or the inconvenience of having no

e manage!" s

demanded her mother,

atermans! Doilies and finger bowl

ear, and the Watermans are three business wome

ace Ellio

andy. That's a ver

we shouldn't have two?" ask

f expense, dear!" And Mrs. Salisbury dismis

household ghost that is never laid in such a family

dreadfully incompetent maids who preceded Lizzie, "that it is

d from the face of the earth. Even the greenest girls fresh from the other side begin to talk about having the washing put out, and to have extra help come in to wash windows and beat rugs! I don't know what we're coming to-you tea

Sandy contributed, a little doubtfully. "You

one of the most comfor

lecloth on between meals-Grandma told me so herself!-and no fussing with doilies, or service plates under the soup plates, or glass sa

rhaps she did, although I never remember hearing her say so. But my mother

, Sally? Cut out some of the extra tou

ep things "nice," with two growing boys in the family, without encountering such opposition as this. A

e simplest statement. Tasteless oatmeal, Lizzie glibly asseverated, had been well salted; weak coffee, or coffee as strong as brown paint, were the fault of the pot. Lizzie, rushing through dinner so tha

rn apartments, with a gas stove, and a dumbwaiter, and hardwood floors, if Sandy and I couldn't manage

ates, Mother!" Alexandra put in briskly.

city-" protested Stanford. "No

alls, we'd have to keep coming o

old the children severely, "and we lived in a dear little cottage, only eighteen dollars a month, and I did all my own work! And never in our lives have we liv

ught to be all so well arranged and regulated that a girl would know what she was expected to do, and know that y

talk very easily about," she interrupted herself to say with feeling, "but it never seems to occur to any one of you that every household has its different demands and regulati

upon by women," said Alexandra. "She says that the secret of the whole trouble is that w

Mrs. Sargent's name

ell to talk about class distinctions! She was his stenographer when Cyrus Sargent married her, and the daughter of a t

knows that Grandfather was General Stanford, and all that! But I think she mean

ury majestically. "The money standard is on

rtly after this, decided of her own accord to accept a better-paid position. "Un

Mrs. Salisbury said firmly

ench woman grew more and more irregular as to hours, and more utterly unreliable as to meals; sometimes the family fared delightfully, sometimes there was almost nothing for dinner. Germaine seemed to fade from sight, not entirely of her own volition, not really discharged; simply she was gone. A Norwegian girl came next, a good-natured, blundering creature whose English was just enough to utterly confuse herself and everyone else. Freda's mistakes were not half so funny in the making as Alexandra made

asserted that they would work, without pay, for a good home. This was a most uncomfortable experience, unsuccessful from the

, because the colored woman did not resent constant supervision, and an almost hourly change of plans. Mrs. Salisbury did almost all of the cooking herself, fussing for hours in th

her pretty head into the kitchen doorwa

I've done the boys' room and the guest room; it's all ready for the Cutters. And I put towe

hild," the mother w

heek against her mother's hot one. "Do you have to stay out here,

"so now it has to be pared and frosted. Such a bother! But this is the

than two minutes. Sometimes even

ow, Brewer-Brewer manages it awfully well. He has his man set out a big cold roast or two, cheese, and coffee, and

ts very soberly indeed. "Roasts-cheeses-fruit pies!" she would say bitterly to herself. "Why is it that a man will spend as much on a single lu

ts," she said one evening, in desperation

e carelessly over the pa

y?" he presently read

s wife answered simply. But th

uch!" he said,

a moment, turn a page or two.

my roasts are

ed briskly, "I like a big roast. Sometimes our

Salisbury sai

he was trapped, and he put down th

have to move to a cheaper house, that's all, or take Stanford out of school and put him to work. Dickens says somewhere-and he never said a truer thing!" pursued the man of t

mbroidery, whose bright colors blurred and swam

lf. "I am sure I never do! Things just seem to run away with me; I

soup is spoiled. The idiot, she says that you left it in the pantry to cool, and she forgot to pu

aid Mr. Salisb

se the dinner is just soup and a fish salad, and one needs

me what to do?" asked

rl sat on the arm of the desert

ould cook!"

Sandy?" her

getting things cooked all at the same moment! I don't mean that I'd like to do it, but I would like to know how. Now, Mother'll sc

er was beginning, with the untiring hopefulness of the

hen we'd settle right down to washing dishes, and setting tables, and

take in turn an arm

ed Kane Salisbury, keenly appreciative

ereal coffee, but admit, darling, that you'd rather have me useless and frivolous as I am!-than Gertrude or Florence or Winifred Gregory! Why,

r father mildly. "I thought that was a very pret

went on, arranging her own father's hair fastidiously; "it's positively offensive the way they bounce up to change plates and tell you how to make the neck of mutt

l work, too,

he bank. Winnie and Florence are buying gas shares, and Gert

g. But some related thought darkened his eyes a moment later. "

ely. "But I could work, Dad," she added more seriously, "if Mother didn't mind so

lates in your own houses, yet you'll cheerfully suggest going to live in the filthiest par

-day, just as managing your house was Mother's when she married you. Circumstances have changed. I couldn't ever take up the kitchen question just as it presents itself to Mother. I-people my age do

wh

hing social centers and clubs for servant girls, you know, and she's gotten into this new thing, a sort

r father said. But Ale

could try one of the graduates, but she keeps six or seven house servants, and it wouldn't be practicable. But I'll see. I never tho

ally, in a tone well calculated neither to alarm nor encourage, balanced to keep events unin

ng entirely new, and just w