laws of
processes appear as miracles of nature controlled at last by the art of
man.

Seeing all this clearly, it is not strange that the young woman decides
to relegate the bad kitchen to the limbo of broken and disused
furniture. This, to her, is the impossible kitchen: one that has no
shelves, drawers, or cupboards, and no place where things can be put
away; or if there are any shelves, they are made so wide that things
have to be stored in behind each other so that the first row must be
taken out in order to get at something behind. In this impossible
kitchen the pantry is on the wrong side for the worker. By the
arrangement of doors and windows light and air are shut out. The rotten
old wooden sink is bad smelling, too low, and too narrow, and it is so
far from the pantry that the worker will have to go back and forth ten
times as many times to do a piece of work as she would if the articles
were conveniently placed. The room is too large; there is many times as
much walking as is necessary; it is as far removed as it possibly can be
from the compact convenience of the ideal kitchen. The floor is uneven
and there are broken splinters where the wood has worn. They catch the
dust, and little bits of string drag along from them to catch more dust
and dirt. It is impossible that this floor should ever be clean; the
very thought of it is discouraging. The water must be brought from an
outside well, and the wood from an outdoors wood-pile. If it is a rainy
day, the wood is wet and takes a long time to get to burning in the
range. It is not a range--it is only a stove and a poor one at that.

There are many other things that might be said about the impossible
kitchen, but perhaps it is not necessary to go any further, for has not
everybody seen one? The great majority of kitchens are now impossible.
The great majority should be torn out before any more machinery is
bought for the farm business, and a full kitchen equipment should be
installed in the place of the worn-out floors, the ill-adapted
furniture, the cracked and rusted hardware, the soaked and disease-laden
woodwork, and the leaky pipes and shingles.

When the daughter in the country home sees that the father and mother
are working together for one end, that they have for the good of all
undertaken a task that is too great for them, and that they are
oppressed and almost despairing in their fight against untoward
circumstances, she is ready to join in the str