The story
A ‘Down East’ boy went out West to seek his fortune and succeeded. Like all successful men he had a hobby. His was that cooks had deteriorated and the chefs of today were not in the same class with the housekeepers of his boyhood. He was particularly emphatic when telling of the old boarding house Down East, where the landlady cooked a New England boiled dinner such as never been heard of before or since. The rich man’s thoughts turned to it one day when he was trying to dine in a fashionable mountain resort hotel. Everything brought before him displeased him, and he finally left the table in disgust and as hungry as when he had entered the place. Driving along moodily in his automobile he noticed a sign on a little cottage which read ‘New England Boiled Dinner 25 Cents.’ Hastily he stopped the auto and rushed back to the cottage. At first he could not believe that the sign was true, but the savory odors that were wafted to him convinced him that it was not a dream. He entered and ate a New England boiled dinner, and then followed it up with several others. To the pretty waitress he expressed a desire to meet the cook, and to his joy he found that she was his landlady of 20 years ago. Naturally he did not want to lose her. She was older than he, so he did not contemplate matrimony. But the daughter was young, pretty and attractive, so now she presides at the rich man’s table as his wife, while the servants, under the vigilant eye of mother, have become passed masters in the art of preparing New England boiled dinners.
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 8 March 1913
