oven one can see
A roast ... what else on earth would smell so good?...
And little globes of fat, all amber-hued,
Dance in the pan and sing with noisy glee.
Sweet sounds! Inviting yet another song;
And I will sing in unison with them.
Work brings the joy that helps the work along,
And so, harmonious, sounds the kitchen hymn.
While all about the ready dinner-table
The children's voices raise a merry babel.

_Helen Coale Crew._

CHAPTER XII

THE HOUSEHOLD LABORATORY

The kitchen should be a combination of laboratory, machine shop and
studio. The work done there is just as complex as that! There are an
almost infinite number of different things needed to accomplish the
different processes that have to be carried on in this workshop. There
must be a variety of mechanical devices to negotiate and subtly maneuver
all the effects that are to be brought out to artistic and wholesome
conclusions.

This is true to a great extent nowadays in all households whether in
city or country. But the farm is yet, as it always was, a place where
there is greater complexity to master because many more things are done
there. The spirit of machinery has entered into the life of the city
kitchen and eased the burden; it must now enter the country household
and work the same magic there.

If the kitchen is to be a combination laboratory and machine shop it
must look like one. It must be filled with appliances for every part of
the intricate work of making ten thousand things that are needed for the
family through the various seasons and changes of the year.

Imagine an exquisite room long and narrow. The walls are painted white
or light gray--a warm golden gray for the relief and pleasing of the
eye. The floor is comfortable to the feet, sanitary, easily cleansed and
durable. There is an iron ring in the floor where the cover to the chute
is lifted down which the dust is to be thrown. There is another for the
ash chute, lined with metal for protection from fire by means of the
hot coals that may sometimes be left in the ashes. One beauty of the
electric stove is that it produces no ashes; one advantage of the vacuum
cleaner is that it does away with dust.

The sink has two compartments--all enameled white--one for the washing
of the dishes and one for the draining. In the second is the wire
drainer. The sink is placed at the right height for this particular
housewife, be she a little treasure done up in