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more pressing matters occupied my mother's
mind and she gave the matter no
further thought until Miss Case telephoned her, on the
day of the lecture, for final instructions. My mother, suddenly
realizing that she had done nothing about selling
tickets, gathered members of her family together and a handful
of friends, about ten in all, and hurried them in to Winsor School.
Except for two or three stray teachers who kept popping in and out
at odd moments, this constituted the entire audience.
Miss Case's speech defect, or lisp, is perhaps best remembered by
her remarks at a town meeting in Weston when a sewer
system for the center of town was under discussion. Somehow
the subject got changed to Weston's need for a new source of water and
the inadequacy of the present supply. Whereupon Miss
Case, desirous of keeping the discussion on the main topic, rose to her
feet and said:
"Mistah Modah-waiter — I thought we were twying to get
wid of owah woe-tah."
The audience burst into spontaneous laughter, but Miss Case failed
to see any humor in the remark and finally sat down, confused. She
wisely decided not to pursue the subject any further.
Ours was not a working farm. Most of what we raised was
either eaten by us or by our farm families. A constant flow of
fresh vegetables came in from the garden all summer. We never had
to buy any but we did buy all our fruit, except for apples
and pears which we grew in our own orchards. In winter, vege-tables and
fruit were stored in a cold cellar under the barn, and towards spring
they developed a barn-like taste — especially the apples — but that was
par for the course. Our dairy products, on |
