telephone rang; and after she had answered it, Mother Blair called Mildred, who sat reading by the window.

"My dear," she said, "do you remember hearing Father speak of his old friends the Wentworths, whom he used to know so well years ago? Well, they have come east, and are in town for a day or two, and they want to come out and see us this very afternoon. Now I should love to ask them to stay to supper, but if I do, I shall have to stay with them and visit and can't help you at all; and Norah is out. Do you suppose you three children could get the supper and serve it all by yourselves?"

"Why, of course, Mother Blair," said Mildred, reproachfully. "Of _course_ we can! You don't know how many things your children can do when they try! Now what shall we have? It ought to be something very good, because they have never been here before."

"We were going to have canned salmon," said her mother, thoughtfully; "we might scallop that, and have potatoes with it, and perhaps m.u.f.fins or biscuits."

"Oh, have m.u.f.fins, Mother! I have seen Norah make them lots of times, and I'm sure I could, too, if you give me the receipt."

"Well, you may try," said her mother, "but I think you had better have some toast ready, too, in case they do not come out right. And what else can we have? Preserves, I suppose; but, Mildred, all the nice preserves are gone, because it is so late in the spring. But we might have little baked custards."

"Yes, in the cunning little brown baking dishes; those will be lovely!

And I'll make some little cakes to eat with them; Norah said there were just cookies for supper."

"But do you really think you can do all that? Don't you think the cookies will do?"

"No, indeed," said Mildred, "not for extra nice company! But little cakes are no trouble to make. And isn't it fun to have company come when you don't expect it? It's so much nicer than to specially invite them!"

Mother Blair laughed. "I hope you will always think so," she said. And Mildred ran away to call Brownie to get her ap.r.o.n and come to the kitchen.

"We will lay the table first, even though it is so early," said their mother. "Brownie, bring me the pile of the best doilies in the sideboard drawer."

"The Wheelers always use a regular big cloth for supper," Brownie said, as she came over with them to the table.

"Many people do, but I think the table looks prettier at breakfast and luncheon and supper with the doilies. And then, too, if anybody happens to spill anything--"

"Jack spilled gravy yesterday, awfully," said Brownie, soberly.

"Well, you see Norah had to wash only one little doily because of that; if we had had on a table-cloth, all of it would have had to go into the wash. But if we had no doilies, I should use a lunch cloth that would just cover the top of the table, and that would be pretty, too. Put one doily for each person, Brownie, and a large one in the middle for the fern dish, and little ones for the tumblers. Now for the silver."

Mildred came with knives, forks, and spoons.

"No knives, because there is no meat," said her mother; "but if we were going to use them, which side would you put them on?"

"Left," said Brownie, guessing.

"Not unless you were left-handed," smiled her mother. "The rule is: put on the right side what you will use with the right hand, and on the left what you will use with the left hand. That is, if there are no knives, all the silver goes on the right, and the fork or spoon you are to use first goes the farthest away from the plate, the next one next to that, and so on; if you remember that, you will never be puzzled as to which fork to use. Now the teaspoons--put those on the right, too; and the dessert spoon or fork may go at the top, across the plate if you like, though I prefer it on the dessert plate itself. Put the napkin at the left, always; and the tumbler goes at the top to the right, and the bread-and-b.u.t.ter plate and knife at the top too, toward the left. There!

Doesn't that look pretty?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Arranging a Small Round Tray in Front of her Mother's Place]

Mildred had been getting out the best cups and saucers and arranging a small round tray in front of her mother's place with cream and sugar and the tray bowl, and a place left for the tea-pot; the cups she put at the right, arranging them in twos--two cups on two saucers.

"Mildred, after you pa.s.s the salmon, you may put the dish right in front of Father; and the potatoes may go on the table too, as Norah isn't here, though I like best to have them pa.s.sed from the sideboard. The m.u.f.fins may stand at the side of the table, half-way down. Now let us carry out all the dishes and begin to cook."

So Mildred took a pile of plates to heat, and Brownie carried a dish for the potatoes, and Mother Blair brought the little custard cups; they arranged these on the kitchen table where they would not be in the way, and then Mother Blair told Mildred to see that the fire was all right.

"Always remember to look at that first," she said. "It needs shaking down a little, and to have more coal on; and pull out the dampers so the oven will heat."

Mildred hunted for the dampers, but could not find any. "I don't believe there are any on this stove," she said, just as Jack came in to see what was going on.

"No dampers! Isn't that just like a girl!" he exclaimed. "See, here they are, tucked under the edge of the stove. You pull them out--so--and then you shut the draft at the top, opposite the coal, and open the one at the bottom, so the air will blow right up through the fire and make it go like everything. And you have to turn the dampers in the pipe, too, to let the heat go up the chimney."

"Good!" said his mother. "I didn't know you knew so much about stoves.

Now suppose you shake the fire down and put the coal on--that's a man's work."

"All right," said Jack; "I don't mind things like that; but boys don't cook, you know."

His mother put both hands over her ears. "Jack, if I hear you say that once more, I shall believe you are turning into a parrot! And you are all wrong, too, and some day I am going to give you some special lessons myself. But to-day you may just tend the fire and bring us things from the refrigerator as we need them, to save time. Now, Mildred, we will begin with the custards, because they must be nice and cold. Brownie, you bring the spoons and bowls and such things, and, Jack, you get the milk and eggs."

BAKED CUSTARDS

1 quart of milk.

Yolks of four eggs.

4 teaspoonfuls of sugar.

1/2 teaspoonful of vanilla.

1 pinch of salt.

1/2 teaspoonful of grated nutmeg.

Put the sugar in the milk; beat the eggs light, and add those, with salt and vanilla. Pour into the cups, sprinkle with nutmeg, and arrange the cups in a shallow pan. Bake half an hour, or till, when you put the blade of a knife in one, it comes out clean.

It took just a few moments to make these, and then came the next rule:

CURRANT CAKES

1/2 cup of b.u.t.ter.

1 cup of sugar.

1 cup of milk.

1 egg.

2 cups of flour.

2 rounded teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.

1/2 cup of currants.

1 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Wash the currants and rub them dry in a towel. Put the flour in a bowl; take out a large tablespoonful and mix with the currants, and then mix the baking-powder with the rest of it. Rub the b.u.t.ter to a cream, add the sugar, then the milk, then the egg, beaten without separating, then the flour mixed with the baking-powder, then the flavoring, and, last, the currants. Grease some small tins, fill them half full, and bake in an oven not too hot.

"You must always mix some flour with raisins or currants to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the cake; but do not add any to the rule--just take a little out from what you are going to use in the cake.

Now, Jack, please get me two cans of salmon from the pantry and open them; and we will need b.u.t.ter and milk from the refrigerator, too. It's fine to have a 'handy man' around to help us cook! Now, Mildred, double this rule, because there will be so many at supper."

SCALLOPED SALMON

1 good-sized can of salmon, or one pint of any cooked fish.

1 cup of white sauce.

1 cup of cracker crumbs.

b.u.t.ter a baking dish, put in a layer of fish, then one of crumbs; sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, and dot the crumbs with b.u.t.ter; then put on a layer of white sauce. Repeat till the dish is full, with the crumbs on top; dot with b.u.t.ter and brown well in the oven; it will take about twenty minutes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Brownie rolled the crackers]

Brownie rolled the crackers for this, while Mildred made the white sauce by the rule she said was so easy it was exactly like learning a b c.