MUNDANE MUSINGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 69, 13 June 1927, Page 5

MUNDANE MUSINGS

THE PELICAN IN HER PIETY The legend that the pelican, most exemplary of mothers, actually feeds her young with her life blood, has evidently fired the imagination of Hermione, for, metaphorically speaking, she would have you believe that that is her constant occupation, says an English writer. “Do sing us that awfully pretty thing of Debussy’s,” you ask her brightly, little knowing what you are bringing on your head. “Sing,” says Hermione, blankly, in the voice of one asked to walk the tight-rope. “Darling, you know I never sing now. I haven’t touched the piano since I was married, with a family one gets no time. . . .” Here she weighs in with a wan smile of renunciation and Mrs. Smith, the nurseless mother of three, looks with new interest and wonder at Hermione’s mole coat and pink vagabond, and inquires sympathetically:

“How many children have you?” “Only one, but I think an only child is more of a responsibility, really,” sighs Hermione, trying to look like the Sistine Madonna.

Mrs. Smith says she supposes it is. “I dare say it wouldn’t worry some people, but I’ve never been the type of woman who could shelve her responsibilities, I don’t think any real mother

can,” says Hermione, gazing fixedly at Mrs. Smith, till that poor lady begins to wonder if, in spite of having been up all night with the baby who is teething and having to dash home in a minute to bath all three of them, she is really a mother, after all.

“I think a real mother sacrifices everything for her children —time, appearance, talents,” coos Hermione, soulfully, raising a perfectly-manicured hand to tuck in an equally perfect permanent wave. “I never seem to have a rag to wear, and as for reading, I haven’t had time to real a novel for years. Don’t you find the same?” Spechless, Mrs. Smith feels inclined to say that she’s long ago given up the unequal struggle, and that her highest aspiration is to read the head-lines in the daily paper, while she buttons up Mary’s overall with one hand, and gives John a much-needed handkerchief with the other. Hermione’s “pelicanism” is nothing but a series of stained glass attitudes and pretty poses, for there has never been a moment when she has not had a very expensive, highly efficient nurse to look after her little Peter, and there’s no earthly reason why she shouldn’t practise the piano, or read novels ail day long, if she wished to. The reason why she has so little time is not as she would have you believe, because she is wearing herself out ministering to her little lamb, but because she’s wearing out the parquet at a fashionable tango tea, or trying to decide whether flame georgette, or peach taffeta would be the most becoming, only her devotion to Peter provides a more picturesque excuse. Ask her to lend you a hand with the new curtains, or the church bazaar, and she will sigh regretfully: “Darling, you know I’d love to help you, but I simply can’t leave baby.” Peter is six, by the way, and only alluded to as “baby” in moments of strong maternal (?) emotion. You feel inclined to remind her that she was able to “leave baby” quite cheerfully for *six weeks when she went to the winter sports, and that you know she would as soon think of putting on a flannel petticoat as a flannel apron, but it would be useless. Hermione has been playing at pelicans so long that she actually believes her own stories of maternal solicitude and self-sacrifice. Never half-cook meat if you want to keep it. Meat is porous, and cooking the outer portion closes the pores and prevents air from getting m. The best way is to cook it well when it comes from the shop, then, before serving, steam it slowly till it is thoroughly heated. Even if using felting, always put a layer of newspaper under a carpet or oilcloth. As well as deadening sound it keeps dampness away, and the ink is a deterrent to moths and bugs. If a bedroom jug becomes furred with hard-water deposits fill it with water, put in the peel of a lemon, and allow to stand for a day and a night. Then it will be quite easy to wipe the jug clean.