“How do you know all this?” asked Mrs. Lennox in amazement. “I mean, how do you know what the prices are now?”
Molly laughed. “In this particular instance I made special inquiry or asked Mrs. Welles to do so; but I keep pretty well up in such matters by the Saturday editions of some of the evening papers, although I usually add a couple of cents a pound to the quotations for prime meats to allow for any difference there may be. I do it, however, only from curiosity, for I could not buy my own meat so, even if my family were large, for Mr. Bishop is not experienced enough to buy and send it out.”
“Nor is Mr. Lennox, but he has a friend who has bought so for years, and who also, when game and poultry are cheap, and I believe they often are as cheap as meat, sends that home to his wife too; and Mr. Lennox enjoys going with him, and once in a while has sent us home turkeys when they have been very low in price.”
“Then I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll write out several recipes to use up the parts of the beef that you will not broil or roast, so that you will not be forced to eat beef exclusively in order to get rid of it before it spoils. I will do the same with the mutton.”
“But, my dear Mrs. Bishop, how can I possibly trouble you so far? What can I do for you in return?”
“I know something you can easily do. Let me have part of your beef or mutton when you get it; we’ll take turns about the prime parts,—I have as much use for coarse ones sometimes; and ask Mr. Lennox once in a while when he is buying meat with his friend and game is cheap, to send me out some. In New York prairie hens and partridges are sometimes a dollar a pair; then they are cheaper than meat to those fond of them as we are. Yet Mrs. Framley says she never knew them less than two dollars a pair here. Then the writing will not be much trouble to me, for while Mrs. Welles is here I intend to get some recipes from her; the one copy will do for both of us.”
“I’m afraid I’m getting all the good of that arrangement.”
“No, it’s a case of give and take between us. You learn cooking from me, I learn something as valuable from you.”
“You are kind enough to say so.”
After Mrs. Lennox had gone, Mrs. Welles asked what Molly meant by saying she was learning something just as valuable.