| Home -> The Press in the Forest -> The Long Ago -> Chapter 5 | |||
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The Sugar Barrels
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| Do you remember the three barrels of sugar in the dark place under the stairs - or were they in the big pantry just off the kitchen? Well, anyway, there were three, you recollect - two of white and one of brown. Always the brown sugar - and each Autumn the same colloquy: "Mr. Van, don't you think we can get along without the brown sugar this year?" "Now, Mrs. Van, you've got to have a little brown sugar in the house - and it comes cheaper by the barrel." "Yes, so it does, Mr. Van . . . . . We can use it, I suppose, in something . . . . . And we always have had it, and . . . . . Well, do as you think best." White sugar was good when you had something to go with it. But brown sugar stood alone - sticky, heavy, crumbly lumps that held together until a fellow could tip back his head and drop one of the chunks in his mouth. And after school grandmother could be persuaded to cut a full-size slice of bread (thick) and spread it with butter (thick) and you'd start away with it (quick) - just nibbling at one edge, not really biting - and you'd sneak into the dark place under the stairs (or into the pantry) - and reach deep down into the white sugar barrel - and grab a handful - and sprinkle it over the bread-and-butter - and shake back into the barrel all that didn't stick to the butter - and then do it all over again - and pat it down hard - and then sprinkle just a little bit more on hurriedly, (because grandfather's cane could be heard tapping down the hall) - and then you emerged with dignity, but with no unnecessary commotion - and just faded away into the Outer World so softly, so gently, so contentedly! . . . . . (Have you tried any bread-and-butter-and-sugar recently? Did it taste the same as it used to? . . . No? . . . Perhaps you broke it into pieces instead of beginning at one side and eating straight through? Or maybe you got hold of the cooking butter . . . Or did you try it with baker's bread? . . . No? . . . Well, why didn't it taste the same? |
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