Out-of-fashion nowadays?
“’Tis true: ’tis true ’tis pity;
And pity ’tis ’tis true.”
THE BEST PEOPLE
Enough of the old-time spirit lives among our really “best people” to justify the “kitchenly-kind” in proffering gifts that presuppose personal liking and active desire to please a neighbor. A cake compounded by yourself; a plate of home-made rolls taken from your own table; a dainty fancy dish of sweets of home-manufacture, express more of the “real thing” than a box of confectionery or a basket of flowers put up by a florist. It is the personal touch that glorifies the gift, the consciousness that your neighbor thinks enough of you to give of her time and service for your pleasure. The home-made offering partakes of her individuality, and appeals to yours.
Neighborliness does not, of necessity, imply familiarity of manner and speech that may become offensive, or a continuous performance of visits, calls and “droppings-in” that must inevitably become a bore, however congenial may be the association. Those friendships last longest where certain decorous forms are always observed, no matter how close the mutual affection may be. Mrs. Stowe, in one of her New England stories, describes the intercourse between two families as “a sort of undress intimacy.” Reading further, we find that this dishabille companionship involves visits by way of the back door and at all sorts of unconventional hours.
BACK-DOOR VISITING