Holiday Stories for Young People | Page 7

I forgot to speak of the strawberries, but good
strawberries and rich cream need no directions. A pretty way of serving
them for breakfast, or for people who prefer them without cream, is
simply to arrange the beautiful fruit unhulled on a cut glass dish, and
dip each berry by its dainty stem into a little sparkling mound of
powdered sugar.

As for our games, our talk, our royally good time, girls will understand
this without my describing it. As Veva said, you can't put the soul of a
good time down on the club's record book, and I find I can't put it down
here in black and white. But when we said good-night, each girl felt
perfectly satisfied with the day, and the brothers pleaded for many
more such evenings.
CHAPTER III.
A FAIR WHITE LOAF.
"It's very well," said Miss Clem Downing, Marjorie's sister, "for you
little housekeepers to make cakes and creams; anybody can do that; but
you'll never be housekeepers in earnest, little or big, my dears, till you
can make good eatable bread."
"Bread," said Mr. Pierce to Amy, "is the crowning test of housewifery.
A lady is a loaf-giver, don't you know?"
"When Jeanie shall present me with a perfect loaf of bread, I'll present
her with a five-dollar gold piece," said Jeanie's father.
"I don't want Veva meddling in the kitchen," observed Mrs. Fay, with
emphasis. "The maids are vexatious enough, and the cook cross enough
as it is. If ever Veva learns breadmaking, it must be outside of this
house."
"Don't bother me, daughter," said Mrs. Partridge, looking up from the
cup she was painting. "It will be time for you to learn breadmaking
when the bakers shut their shops."
As for the writer of this story, her mother's way had been to teach her
breadmaking when she was just tall enough to have a tiny
moulding-board on a chair, but Milly did not feel qualified to take hold
of a regular cooking class. It was the same with Linda Curtis.
Grandmamma suggested our having a teacher, and paying her for her
trouble.

"Miss Muffet?" said Veva.
"Miss Muffet," we all exclaimed.
"And then," said Jeanie, "our money will enable her to buy the winter
cloak she is so much in need of, and she will not feel as if she were
accepting charity, because she will earn the money if she teaches us."
"Indeed, she will," exclaimed Veva. "I know beforehand that she will
have one fearfully stupid pupil, and that is Veva Fay."
Breakfast was no sooner over next morning, and grandmamma dressed
and settled in comfort, than away we flew to our friend. "We," means
Linda and myself. She is my nearest neighbor, and we often act for the
club.
Miss Muffet lived by herself in a bit of a house, her only companions
being a very deaf sister and a very noisy parrot.
"Passel o' girls! Passel o' girls!" screamed the parrot, as we lifted the
latch and walked up the little bricked pathway, bordered with
lady-slippers and prince's feather, to the porch, which was half hidden
by clematis.
Miss Muffet was known to every man, woman and child in Bloomdale.
She was sent for on every extra occasion, and at weddings, christenings
and funerals, when there was more work than usual to be done, the little
brisk woman, so quiet and so capable, was always on hand. She could
do a little of everything, from seating Tommy's trousers to setting
patches in Ellen's sleeves; from making lambrequins and table scarfs to
laundrying lace curtains and upholstering furniture. As for cooking,
preserving and canning, she was celebrated for miles around and
beyond our township.
"Would Miss Muffet undertake to show a few girls how to make bread
and rolls and biscuit and sally-lunn, and have patience with them till
they were perfect little housekeepers, so far as bread was concerned."

It was some little time before we could make Miss Muffet understand
our plan, and persuade her to let us pay for our lessons; but when she
did understand, she entered into the plan with enthusiasm.
"La me! What a clever notion to be sure! Sister Jane, poor dear, would
approve of it highly, if she weren't so deaf. Begin to-day? Well, well!
You don't want the grass to grow under your feet, do you? All right! I'll
be at your house, Milly, at six o'clock this evening to give the first
lesson. Have the girls there, if you can. It's as easy to teach a dozen as
one."
"Milly," said Linda, "the club ought to have a uniform and badges. I
don't think a club is complete that hasn't a badge."
"We all have white aprons," I said.
"Yes; ordinary aprons, but not great kitchen aprons to cover us