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CHAPTER XVII

THE MARKET BASKET

THE washing and wiping of the dishes was made more interesting because it was accompanied by a discussion as to what should be ordered for the housewarming dinner. Mother washed, Ruth wiped and Paul put away the dishes, while Father sat with pencil and paper, ready to write down the list of groceries that must be bought.

"Let's begin with the meat. What kind of meat shall we have?" said Father.

"I'd like to have Irish stew," said Ruth. "Stew isn't so stylish as chops, but I know how to make it. We learned how at the farm last summer, and it was fine, and I know Uncle George likes it."

"Very well," agreed Mother. "I think it would be nice to have a dinner that you could cook yourselves, since this is really your own housewarming. Now what vegetables shall we have?"

"There will be vegetables enough in the stew," said Father, "but let's have a salad. Something fresh and green always looks and tastes nice and is good for us, besides."

So it was decided to have stew and a tomato and lettuce salad, with home-made ice-cream and crushed peaches for dessert. Mother was to make the icecream and Father agreed to help Paul freeze it. Ruth

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proudly copied out the bill of fare for the dinner on a special writing tablet that she had fixed herself. It hung with a pencil attached, beside the kitchen table in the play-house. It was ruled with red ink

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into two lists, one showing what was planned for the day's meals and one what must be bought. Ruth had spent all one afternoon designing a fancy border for it and with its red-ink ruling and pencil tied on with red ribbon, it was really an ornament to the kitchen.

As Mrs. Weston went down the street with a child hanging on each arm, they were hailed by Dorothy Frost. "Come along, Dot," called Ruth, "Aunt Louise is coming home and we are inviting her to dinner in our new play-house, so we've got to go marketing for the things. Want to come?"

"Oh," exclaimed Dorothy, raising her eyebrows, "do you go to the store and buy your groceries? Mother always telephones. It's ever so much quicker and easier. No, I don't believe I care to go along-I don't feel very well to-day; I've got a headache."

"Isn't that just like Dorothy!" cried Ruth, in rather a vexed tone. "Why is she always so snippy? I suppose it is easier, though, to telephone, especially on rainy days."

"Of course, it's easier, if you are willing to take whatever the butcher and grocer choose to send and

pay whatever they ask. Mrs. Frost met me on the street the other day on her way to the grocer's. She said she had never been so angry in her life, that Chase and Smith had been sending her stale vege

tables and charging her twice what they were worth. I told her that I always went to the store or market and picked out what I wanted, and paid for it, so I always knew what I was getting and what it cost, but she said that was too much trouble."

As Mother ended, they turned into the meat market. It was a little farther away than some other stores, but it was always neat and clean, with spotless counters and meat blocks and Mr. Sullivan, who kept it, always wore a snowy apron and a broad smile. As Mrs. Weston explained that she wanted two pounds of beef from the top of the round, cut up for a stew, he scoured off the top of the meat block with a wire brush, leaving it smooth and clean. Ruth and Paul watched him as he quickly and deftly cut the meat and laid it on the automatic scale. It marked just exactly two pounds. "I want you to notice the scale carefully, Ruth and Paul," said

Mother. "This sort of scale is the best, because it gives no chance for any unfairness. Whenever you buy anything you should always make a habit of

looking at the scale, to make sure that you are getting full weight."

"I don't think meat before it's cooked looks very good," Ruth.

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"Neither do I," said Mother, "and you know that as a rule, I don't care to have you and Paul eat very much of it. Plenty of milk and eggs are better for you, but I know Uncle George is fond of

meat. So if you have to buy meat, you should know how good meat looks. You notice that this beef is bright red, not bluish as stale meat becomes, and it has little streaks of fat through it, which makes it more tender than meat that is perfectly lean."

The next stop was at the grocer's, where they bought potatoes, carrots, onions and celery for the stew and the tomatoes and lettuce for the salad. Ruth and Paul selected the vegetables themselves, following Mother's advice to choose those that looked fresh and unwrinkled, and Ruth tested the peaches by a very gentle pressure, to make sure they were ripe.

As they trudged merrily home with their pur

chases Mother said, "How lucky we are to have a butcher like Mr. Sullivan and a grocer like Mr. Willis, who always keep clean food in a clean store and sell it at a fair price."

"How do you know what is a fair price?" asked Paul.

"The papers publish lists of what the various things cost to buy at wholesale—that is, in large amounts—and you have heard Father and me speak of the special lists of prices since the war. By reading the papers you can keep track of what things ought to cost. Then, too, people who are thrifty know what things are in season and what things are not. For instance, in June we had delicious asparagus quite cheaply, but now asparagus is out of season and fresh asparagus can be raised only in hot-houses, so of course it is very high priced. Strawberries were cheap three months ago, but now they are very high."

"Do you remember last summer, Mother, when you took us to New York, how we saw a lot of people buying things from pushcarts?" said Ruth.

"Yes, indeed," said Mother. "Hester Street looked like some scene in Europe, with pushcarts all along the curb, surrounded with women and children. I hate to think of people buying their food from such dirty carts, handled by dirty men and covered with the street dust. If I lived in a great city and had to buy as cheaply as I could, I think I should try to go to one of the big markets, instead of buying from a street-cart. The markets buy great quantities of vegetables, fruit, fish and meat, right from the

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