THE LADIES’ WORLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2515, 31 May 1909, Page 7

THE LADIES’ WORLD.

A WOMAN AS A PLOUGHMAN. REMARKABLE EPISODES. “Amy Bock is not the only woman I have met acting the man/' said an expolice officer when discussing with a Wellington Pressman the case of the heroine of the Nuggets. “It happened in this way];’ 5 he said. “About fourteen or fifteen years ago I received telegraphic advice that it was almost a certainty that Farmer B ’s ploughman was a young woman. I sent a detective and a mounted man to inquire. At night they re- ' turned with a young woman in malo attire, and having all the appearances of an active young ploughman. I questioned her closely, and she told me her whole history. “It was no crime that caused this poor girl to act thus. She had the misfortune to marry a worthless young man. Shortly afterwards she discovered he had a wife in Australia. She left him, and went to service under her own name, but wherever she went the unfortunate marriage leaked out. Sometimes a letter would come, addressed to Mrs So-and-so. Anyway, she always cleared whenever the discovery was made. At last she got so sick of it- that she decided to endeavor to earn her living as a man, and thus escape the annoyance. She bought the necessary clothes, as if for-a brother, carried them to some thick hushes, where she changed her dress and burnt her old clothes then and there. “That day she started on the road with a swag on her back. Sho walked about twelve miles, and went to a hut at the roadside and asked for lodgings. On being asked her name she gave the name of ‘Johnnie Calder. 5 She remained for the night, and was treated very kindly, but had to sleep on a great ‘shake-down’ with three big men, who had not the slightest suspicion as to who their bed-fellow was. Next day she travelled about twelve or fourteen miles, when she got a iob as handy man on a farm... After serving there for some time, she left and travelled about with her swag from place to place until she got work at a sawmill. “While there she attended a dancing class, and, as every other young fellow had a girl, she required one, too. She found a nice lithe girl Miss C—— , and they used to ‘walk out’ together. For want of accommodation at this place she had to share a bed with a voung fellow for some time. He never once had the slightest suspicion who ■/ sho was. By this time she had learned ;M to smoke a clay pipe, and do a little swearing and swaggering, which she said helped her disguise a good deal. She left there., and, after doing some temporary jobs ultimately engaged 111111 a farmer in rather a big way as a ploughman, working a team of big -horses. “At'first her arms get bruised a ®>od deal handling the plough at the -ends of the field, but she soon got over it, and •in a short time became a very fair hand with the horses. Here there was little wlanger of discovery, as she had a hut to Perse 1 f. All went wo'l until her employer sent her a rather long journey •with a message to another farmer, with whom she had served some time before as a servant-girl. She managed to arrive there at dusk, hoping she would not be recognised. She went to the back door and knocked, expecting the ser-vant-girl would answer, but a little child did so. She asked if this was Mr So-and-so’s house. . . “Mr So-and-so happened to be in the kitchen. He heard and recognised her voice, and called out, ‘Come in', Jeanie Why are you stopping out there t blip simplv knocked again. He called out Loader still, ‘Come 111, Jcanie. She replied ‘What is the matter? My name is Johnnie Calder, and I have a message for Mr So-and-so. He went to the door, and stood staring at her for several seconds, but at last stammered out- ‘Goodness, what’s the meaning o. this?’ She replied: ‘What is the.-mat-ter with vou? Are you always like this?’ He" said: ‘But are not you Teanie ? I know you all right. She replied: ‘You are mad. Let. me have an' answer. I will not be Talking to you. You' must be lnny. bhe got a reolv and rode away home. Several days afterwards her master met her previous employer and he was amazed at what lie told him, but would not believe his story. He. came home and stared at and watched Jolm- >'•" n ie Calder. Still lie did not know what • think At last he told Johnnie what he was told. Johnnio declared the man was mad. However, a meeting wa'<? arranged, and tlio foimei cm plover attempted to olace a hand on 'Johnnie's’ chest. Johnnie Lit him on tlie nose and Farmer B had to interfere. The upshot was that I reeeiv- ' • ed the telegram referred to m the foreS °‘‘We arranged to send poor Jeanie home to her widowed mother. I heard •of nothing unbecoming m her conduct since. She told me that on donning the male attire she felt her back weak b.it soon after it got stronger than evei. And after lier experiences she consu med the man’s work preferable to the woman’s.” AMERICAN RECIPES. Milk Toast.—There is more than one way to make milk toast. That’s why it is sometimes very good and sometimes different. - Start by cutting some stale, bread in slices about one-third ol an inch thick. Spread them in. a hot oven to brown until they are crisp all the way through. Butter the bottom of a frying-pan, put m the milk, and heat gradually up to the boiling point Have the toasted broad wc.l butteied and spread it on a platter. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pour the hot milk, over it, serving ax once. Allow aboin a quart of milk for ten or a slices ° l Cheese Fonclii.—One cunful grated cheese, one cupful stale breadcrumbs one cupful milk, one egg, butter, onequarter teaspoonful salt, eteasnoonful pepper, one mustard, one pinch cayenne pcppci a 11 the ingredients except the butter, co-rr arid milk should bo mixed in the dish in which they are to be baked. After that- has been clone beat the and when it has been beaten add the milk to it and pour the c °mWd hqmds over the dry materials. Melt a piece of butter about the size of an egg and -V" add that, too. Bake for from fifteen • to twentv minutes in a hot oven. } Scotch Potato Scones.-y One and a h;df cupfuls flour, one-third cxipful bu - •ter one cupful mashed -potatoes, two I teaspoonfuls baking jav&fc SI T ind hakim- powder together, and ‘ A adding the 'maal.ed' potatoes ng. f, ‘ the butter lightly. Make a port .lough bv adding the egg, well beaten, 4 hecessarv, a little milk. Make is and butter thc : m,rand servo hot.