THE WOMAN'S WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12238, 6 April 1903, Page 3

THE WOMAN'S WORLD.

THE COUNTRY GIRL IN THE COLONIES. Ax article in. the Spectator of October 11 last, on the country girl of the period, has called forth an interesting letter. from "E.K.," a- New Zealand correspondent. "E.K.'s" first reflection is how strangely the country life of old England is being lived again under the kindlier skies of Ultima Thule. He continues:—"The district in which I am living is in many respects a model of an English county a wide and fertile plain, traversed by road and rail, closely set with smiling 'farms, meadows, and corn lands; small wooden homesteads hidden in masses of English trees, hawthorn hedgerows, shelter bells of pines, and long avenues of Lornbardy poplars. Almost, the only obvious evidences of the conquered wilderness are the surrounding hills, which are still clothed with dun-coloured moorland and tracts of dark forest. The road is, of course, still the vital channel of communication. In the outlying parts of my district there are clusters of farms where the times of Sir Roger de Coverley are still lived, in my fancy. The folk are too far from townships to trouble themselves with much more than a visit or two in the year, except for those weary journeys of the men behind mobs of slowly-moving sheep and cattle. Each homestead is its own quiet world, but they take a vast interest in their neighbours. News of each other passes slowly but surely, and is conned over and debated in every .detail. . . . A simpler, sweeter, and happier mode of life it would be hard to find. Here is being bred up rich material for the coming race. ... In such a district as I. have described you will see the country girl at her best. She is, of course, greatly occupied with the duties of the house and the fowlyard and the garden: (All colonial girls are famous gardeners, and can handle a spade as well as a rolling-pin..) Then she is baker and washerwoman, as well as' cook, and housemaid, and waitress. There' are still households where soap and candles are among the domestic products. And there are very few country girls who do not understand the art of' making drinks of all kinds, home-made wines, cordials, and meads. The family recipe book is just as much of an institution here as it ever was in the days of their English grandmother, and is handed ' down from mother ,to daughter, and . added to continually—some of its secrets exchanged, others jealously guarded. To do all this, as well as keep the household running, and satisfy the eternal wants of the housekeeper's principal worry— ' men-folk' the country girl has to portion out her week with a strict economy of time: Monday, washing; Tuesday, ironing; Wednesday, baking; and so on. Her duties are always to hand. "So much for her domestic side. We all know that desperate hoyden, the colonial heroine of" the novelist and the popular imagination ; but, making all allowance for exaggeration, the elements of the type exist. Our country girl can, of course, ride every horse on the farm, and knows their points as well as the men. She probably has to drive in the whole mob from the home paddock if she wants her own mount, and there are few finer sights than a girl rider galloping with streaming stock-whip behind a crowd of tearing horses, herself on a. bare-backed pony, which she manages by sheer balance and instinct. The horses in, she is prepared to catch, groom, saddle, or harness them, without a thought of calling in a man's assistance. Then 1 at the pinch of necessity she has been known to take her place on the stack and catch sheaves with the best. She knows how to manage a plough or a harrow, and understands stock well enough to cull sheep, or to tell one ewe from another in a flock of a hundred. On a dairy farm, where the family is looked to to supply labour for milking, the girl is as good as a boy. And' there is in all cases that easy relation between the boys and girls which you describe in the article referred to. There can' be none of the conventionalities and false prudery in that fresh, free country ; fe. The sister's opinion will be asked and deferred to on many matters connected with the stock and horses.

"As for her culture, that, of course, is varied according to 'station;' but itshould be noted that although the old differences exist here, as they do everywhere else, our democratic character shows ' itself in the thin division between the classes and the constant flow one to another. Itis as much this as anything that keeps ' exclusiveness' in check." SOME DAINTY SALADS. A Piquant Salad: Take half a pint of walnut meats and three tart oranges. Peel the oranges and remove all the white pith, and divide them into small pieces. Cut each piece into half, and mix with the nuts. Line a glass salad howl with the inside leaves of head lettuce. Mix one tablespoonful of lemon juice, three of salad oil, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a ouartei of a teaspoonful of paprika. When well mixed pour this dressing over the oranges and nuts; toss it about lightly, and turn it into the bowl. •-,--..! Winter-green Salad : Pee! a nice large crisp cucumber and cut into blocks .two inches long ; cut these into strips about an eighth of an inch thick and broad ; drain off any moisture, sprinkle with salt and a few drops of good vinegar. Add a liberal allowance of best salad oil; toss all lightly together. Heap the salad in your salad bowl, and sprinkle with a tablespoonful of very finelychopped tarragon, parsley, and a .scrap of shallot. Arrange rings of winter-green berries around the mound of salad, and place a spray of holly with red berries in the centre. Decorate the edge of the bowl with curled nars'ey and curled white celery.. Golden Chestnut Salad: Shell, boil, and. blanch until tender one pint of large chestnuts; drain and dust with salt and pepper, and set asWe to cool. Hard boil two eggs. At serving time arrange lettuce in the salad dish, put in the chestnuts, and pour over a French dressing, using lemon juice instead of vinegar. Hold a small sieve over the dish, rub the eggs through, covering the salad lightly. ' ~-■.-■ "Salad of Cream Cheese: Tint a' cream cheese a delicate green with the juice of boiled spinach or vegetable colouring; form this into balls the size of walnuts or tiny cones. Form nests of the inside leaves of head lettuce, and fill these with the cheese balls or cone?. Place sprays of cress hero and there among the nests, and serve with cream mayonnaise.