Neighborliness is a quality little exercised in cities, where one may live
next door to people for years and merely know their names. Some people
prefer not to know their neighbors, fearing undue familiarity on their
part. The relationship may be a very pleasant one if both parties observe
certain restraints. It is not well to become too intimate. Nobody wants a
neighbor running in at all hours, with or without an errand. Sometimes to
sit on the back porch with a book or paper seems to invite a neighbor to
"run over" and the hour's rest or mental recreation is given over to small
talk.
A neighbor has no more right to enter without knocking than any other
caller, whether by kitchen or front door. It is an intrusion, a disregard
of the reserve that should characterize neighborly intercourse. No matter
how friendly, friendship will last longer where the forms of decorum are
observed.
Borrowing.--The exchange of "kitchen-kindnesses" should be ventured upon
rarely. By these is meant the plate of cookies or biscuit or doughnuts we
send our neighbor on baking-day. Some families prefer their own cooking. A
woman who had been annoyed by many unsolicited donations of this kind,
persisted in though unreciprocated, finally piled the sent-in biscuit
rather ostentatiously on the garbage can in full sight of her neighbor's
window. Other hints had failed, this was effective--a rather violent
remedy, but after all not undeserved. In case of illness, where one has no
maid, or the family must care for the sick, a fresh cake or a tasty
dessert may be offered, and will seldom fail of appreciation. Knowing the
circumstances, one need not hesitate over the proffer of a neighborly
kindness.
There is little excuse in the city for the borrowing of kitchen staples
which is the bane of some country neighborhoods. A borrowing neighbor is
an affliction--a nuisance which unfortunately doesn't come under the
jurisdiction of the Board of Health.
[778 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]