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Seventh Day: Mabel

The girls were delighted with the thought, and were in the kitchen half an hour before the time of serving, so as to be sure not to be late. There was a bright, clear fire, the largest egg was picked out and the loaf brought out of the bread-box, ready to cut. "Here's some lovely fresh bread," remarked Mabel, when her aunt came in. "Oh, fresh bread wouldn't toast well at all! It would be all rough and crumbly. Ask Rhoda if she hasn't some about two days old. If she hasn't any more stale than this, we must send round to the baker's."

Fortunately another visit to the bread-box disclosed some just in the right condition. "Now get the waiter ready; a clean napkin for it-not a great dinner napkin that will hang down ever so far over the sides a fringed one will be prettier; now the little tete-a-tete set that mamma had for a Christmas present. Ah! they are rather dusty, they haven't been used for so long; you must wash and wipe them. Where is a clean napkin? Don't put it in the ring; lay it by the side of the plate and get the smallest salt-cellar. Now fill the little sugar-bowl about half full of sugar and the cream-jug the same; a small knife and fork,-yes, I think that's all. Have a plate of butter on the table ready for the toast, and a large bowl for boiling water to dip it in; we'll make the tea first. The old rule is, a spoonful apiece and one for the pot, but that allows for two cups, and mamma will want only one, so one teaspoonful, a little heaped, will be plenty." "Shall we make it in the little tea-pot, Aunt Jane?" "No, we must take Rhoda's steeper, for this is English breakfast-tea, and must be boiled a few minutes. Oolong, or any kind of green tea, should only be steeped, but you cannot get the full flavor of this kind without boiling it. Scald the steamer first and throw out the water; now put in the tea and pour on about half a pint of boiling water from the tea kettle, then set it where it will simmer for five minutes. Now you may toast the bread, Mabel; you see Rhoda has cut a beautiful even slice. Grace, pour some boiling water into this frying pan, then break the egg very carefully into a saucer, and slide it off into the hot water."

Grace did so, and then her Aunt told her that she must not try to poach eggs in water that was boiling hard, or they would fly in pieces. The water must be boiling to begin with, but afterwards merely simmer until the white was cooked so that no liquid part remained; then the yolk would be sufficiently done. By the time this was done, Mabel's toast had been dipped and buttered and laid on the plate; the egg was then carefully lifted off with a skimmer and placed upon it, covered with a large bowl, the tea poured off the leaves into the little tea-pot, a small pitcher of hot water added in case it should be too strong, and then Grace, being the taller, started off with the waiter, Mabel going along for company. "Whatever else you do, girls," said Aunt Jane, as they were on the way, "don't make tea with water that doesn't boil! There is more wretched stuff drunk under the name of tea, from this cause, than from any other. Many a girl I have had say to me, 'Why, it has boiled!' when I saw from the looks of the tea that it hadn't been made with boiling water. The idea that it must actually be boiling hard at the moment it touches the leaves, is almost impossible to get into their heads." At the door of the sick room Mabel took off the bowl that had covered the toast and egg, and put it on a table AUNT JANE'S COOKING CLASS. 107 in the hall, and the little girls were rewarded by a smile from their mother, and by hearing her remark that nothing had tasted quite so good to her since she had been sick as this little meal of her daughters' preparation.