THE BRIGHT AND SHINING BREADBOARD

When Resolved Makepeace Waterman, colonial Rhode Islander, decides to choose a wife, his mother advises him to determine not can she bake but does she keep her breadboard clean. Discombobulated by his request for breadboard scraps to give his horse, all of the maidens muff the test--except Dorothy Upjohn, his favorite: lacking flour to make bread, she fakes contempt (""I have never a scrap left on my breadboard. No well-brought-up girl does"") and wins Resolved, who accepts the bright and shining breadboard at face value. A mildly amusing gambol, pseudo-colonial but not very stylish, either as drawn or told.