A store of sweet potatoes had been laid by, and green apple, pumpkin, potato and other pies made and stored in the cellar.
In the days of Aunt Betty’s girlhood, when there were no cooking stoves, turkeys were cooked in a turkey roaster made of sheet iron, with a dripping-pan in the bottom and a large tin lid, much resembling a buggy top, over the pan. When Mr. Turkey was stuffed and otherwise prepared for the feast, he was spitted on an iron rod that passed through the sides of the roaster and on through his body from end to end. Then he was ready for the finishing touches over a red-hot fire. The roasters had legs at each corner, so that hot embers could be placed under it when necessary. The tin top reflected the heat and had hinges so that it could be turned back when the cook basted the turkey with a prepared sauce. The dripping-pan at the bottom served to catch and hold the rich gravy.
As Aunt Betty stood now, watching the preparations for the roasting of one of the turkeys, her thoughts traveled back to those other days, and she marveled at the progress of civilization.
“Lawsee, Mis’ Betty!” cried Chloe, as she stopped to wipe her hands on her gingham apron. “We’s gwine tuh hab ’nuff food in dis yere house tuh feed er million people, looks like tuh me.”
Aunt Betty laughed.
“Better too much than not enough,” she observed. “I reckon there won’t be much left by the time New Year’s Day has come and gone. Gerald and Aurora Blank will be over for Christmas dinner, and will drop in for occasional meals during holiday week. Then, with Miss Molly and her father, and Herr and Frau Deichenberg, there will be a nice little party here at home. Those boys, Jim and Len, have appetites that will startle you. Oh, yes; we have lots to eat, Chloe, but—well, you just watch it disappear!”
“Yas’m; we’ll watch hit, all right, en I reckon, Mis’ Betty, dat Ephy, Dinah en me’ll sort o’ help it disappear, too!”
Chloe, bending nearly double, guffawed loudly at her own joke.
Aunt Betty smiled, too, then went to the front of the house to meet the carriage which had been sent to the train, with Dorothy and Jim in it, to meet Judge Breckenridge and Molly.