MRS. L. N. MONMOUTH. 435 In the matter of food Mrs. Monmouth relied much upon corn meal. Four and a half cents would support her very well for a day and a half ; one cent for a quarter of a pound of meal, one and a half for a quarter of a pound of dried beans, and two for a bit of salt pork. This was her customary bill of fare for three days out of the seven. Rice she made great use of, and a pound of oatmeal cooked on Monday served, as a dessert throughout the week, a cup of molasses taking the place of sauce. Occasionally, when they were at their cheapest, she bought several eggs ; at rare intervals she even indulged herself with a beet, a turnip, or a few cents worth of butcher's scraps. Once a month she luxuriated in baking gingerbread or frying doughnuts, one at a time, over her little oil stove. " I always enjoyed the frying of doughnuts," she says, " and looked forward to it with a zest of anticipation ; they generally came up plump and round, and quite filled the little cup of boiling lard. I picked them out with a fork and invariably ate the first while the second was cooking. After that I let them congregate upon a plate, and watched their numbers increase to five, six, seven — never more than that." Now and then she was haunted by visions of the savory cakes and pies baking in her neighbors' ovens ; but when- ever the contrast became too strong between these fancied delicacies and the lonely pot of oatmeal in her own cupboard, she hastened to forget her deprivations in a book. Her usual provision of winter fuel was three cords of wood, which she sawed herself, despite her lame arm, " worrying off," as she expresses it, " a few sticks each day." During the milder seasons of the year she burned only such dried moss, branches, and pine cones as she could gather in the neighborhood. For almost all cooking
