"Come, Jack," his mother said, as he stood picking out the biggest berries from the bowl and eating them, "here's some more man's work for you! We want you to break the ice and pack these freezers for us."

"What do I get for it?" Jack asked, pretending to grumble. "If the girls are going to eat up all the ice-cream, I guess I won't bother freezing it."

"No, indeed, they are not going to eat it all up," said Mother Blair. "I am counting on having ever so much left over for dinner to-night; and you shall have two helpings."

"Make it three and I'll think about it," said Jack, choosing the very biggest berry of all.

"Three then," said Mildred, disgustedly, taking the bowl away. "Boys do eat so much!"

"This cream is going to be so good that you will want three yourself,"

laughed Mother Blair. "Now, Jack, this rule is for you. Some cooks think that all you have to do in packing a freezer is to put in layers of broken ice and salt, and then turn the handle; but there is a right way to do it, and if you follow this, you will find the cream will freeze ever so much more quickly than if you are careless in packing."

PACKING A FREEZER

2 large bowlfuls of broken ice.

1 bowlful of coa.r.s.e salt.

Put the ice in a strong bag and pound with a mallet till it is evenly broken into bits the size of an egg. Put the ice in a pail till you have a quant.i.ty broken, and then measure; add the salt quickly to the ice and stir it well; then put the empty ice cream tin in the freezer with the cover on, and fasten on the top and handle. Pack the ice all around the tin tightly till it is even with the top. Then stand it away, covered with a piece of carpet or blanket, in a dark, cool place, for half an hour. There should be a thick coating of frost all over the inside when the cream is put in.

While Jack was working in the laundry, Mildred and Brownie were reading the receipt their mother gave them, and getting out the spoons and sugar and other things they would need.

"Are the berries washed?" asked Mother Blair. "Yes, I see they are; now, Brownie, you may put half of them at a time into this big bowl, and crush them with the wooden potato-masher till they are all juicy. And, Mildred, here is the rule for making one quart of plain white ice-cream; all you have to do is to add any kind of fruit or flavoring to this, and you can change it into whatever you want."

"Just like a fairy's receipt!" said Brownie.

"Exactly!" said their mother. "Now, Mildred, multiply this rule by five."

PLAIN ICE-CREAM

3 cups of milk.

1 cup of sugar.

1 cup of cream.

Flavoring.

Put the cream, milk and sugar in a saucepan on the fire, and stir till the sugar is melted and the milk steams, but does not boil.

Take it off and beat with the egg beater till it is cold; add the flavoring and freeze.

FRUIT ICE-CREAM

1 quart of fruit, or enough to make a cupful of juice.

1 small cup of sugar.

Mash the fruit, rub it through a sieve, add the sugar, and stir into the cream just before putting it into the freezer.

"You see what an easy rule this is. You can use fresh raspberries or pineapple or peaches in summer-time, and in winter you can use canned fruit. If the fruit is sour, of course you must take a little more sugar than if it is very sweet. And when juice is very sour indeed, like currant or cherry juice, do not use it for ice-cream. And when you want to make chocolate ice-cream you put in--"

"Do let me write that down, Mother, please, because I perfectly love chocolate ice-cream," interrupted Mildred.

CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM

Make the plain ice cream as before; while still on the stove add

3 squares of unsweetened chocolate, grated.

1/4 cup of sugar.

2 teaspoonfuls of vanilla.

Put the vanilla in last, just before freezing.

It took only a little while to mix the cream and cool it, and then Brownie had the berries all ready to go in; so Mildred called to Jack to know if the two freezers were ready. Jack was reading "Treasure Island"

in a corner of the laundry, and it took three calls to rouse him.

"The freezers?" he asked; "the freezers--oh, yes, they are all ready. At least I suppose they are, they've been standing so long. I've been having a great time with old _Silver_ in the stockade!"

"Well," said Mildred, doubtfully, "if you've been off on one of your treasure trips, I don't know whether the freezers will be ready or not."

But when they looked inside, there was the thick frost all over the tin.

"Perfect!" said Mother Blair. "Now you will see how quickly the cream will freeze. It makes all the difference in the world whether or not it is ice-cold inside." Then they poured in the cream and shut the freezer tightly, and Jack began to turn the handles, first of one and then of the other, with "Treasure Island" open before him on an upturned pail, though he very soon found that the freezers needed all his attention. He was devoting himself to his task with grim determination when Mildred peeped in at the door and stood watching him for a moment before she asked, mischievously, "And what is old _Silver_ doing now, Jack? I believe you're really going to deserve those three plates of ice-cream, after all."

"Come, Mildred!" called her mother, "we will make something perfectly delicious to drink," and she handed a fresh receipt to the girls.

GRAPE-JUICE LEMONADE

4 lemons.

1 quart of water.

2 large cups of sugar.

1 quart of grape-juice.

1 orange.

Put the water and sugar on the fire and boil them two minutes.

Roll the lemons and squeeze the juice; when the water is cool, add this and stand it away till you need it. Then add the grape-juice, and put it in a large bowl with a good-sized piece of ice; slice the orange very thin and cut into small pieces and add last. Serve in gla.s.s cups.

"That is so easy anybody could make it," said Brownie. "I guess I'll make some for us all on the next hot night."

"Oh, goody!" said Mildred. "Think how lovely it would taste out on the porch just before bedtime!"

"Specially if there was a moon," said Brownie.

"Yes, indeed! especially if there was a moon! You won't forget, will you?"

Brownie promised faithfully she would not.

By the time this was done and ready to put away in the refrigerator to get very cold, Jack was shouting for somebody to come and see if the cream was frozen. "It turns awfully hard," he complained, rubbing his arms.

His mother wiped off the edges of the tin very carefully so no salt could get in, and then lifted the cover, and, sure enough, the cream was firm and smooth, and a beautiful pink color. Mildred watched her carefully and took the second freezer, doing exactly what her mother did to the first one. They slowly pulled out the dashers, sc.r.a.ping them off as they did so, and then packed the cream down hard; the covers were put on again, each with a cork where the dasher-top had been. Meanwhile Jack had been told to break more ice and mix it exactly as he had before.

When this was ready, the plug at the side of each freezer was pulled out and the water drained off, and then the cans of cream were buried in the fresh ice so that neither of them could be seen, a piece of carpet was laid over each, and it was put back in its dark corner.

"There!" said their mother, when it was all finished. "Ice-cream has to stand at least two hours after it is packed before it is quite good enough to eat. Thank you, Jack! You are really learning lots about cooking, aren't you? And now we will cut the cake and put it on plates in the refrigerator to keep fresh, and then we will all go and dress for the party, because it is three o'clock."