TEA-TABLE TALK.

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6600, 16 May 1925, Page 3

TEA-TABLE TALK.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON Who is it? A well-known writer of long ago answered the riddle thus: “The greatest animal in creation is the animal who cooks”—so the answer is plainly, at any rate, in the majorities of countries—woman. No wonder she is the theme of many poems, placed on a pinnacle inaccessible to mere man, whom she condescends to feed for the sake of present and future peace. The next quotation is a little vague: it almost suggests that she was untidy, and yet the context shows that Buchanan was really complimentary:— In her very style of cooking There was cognisance of cooking; From her very dress was peeping Indications of housekeeping. But the pick of them all, apart from the rather trite The many make the household But only one the home, is.the delightful epitaph to a cook: — Beneath this here dust the mouldy old crust Of Nell Batchelor lately was shoven, She was skilled in the arts of pies, custards and tarts, And knew every use of the oven. When she’d lived long enough she made her last puff— A puff by ber husband much praised— And now here she lies a-making dirt pies, In hopes that her crust may be raised.