Sixth Day
"You said you would show us how to make pie-crust, Aunt Jane," said Grace one day. "Can't we learn today?" "Just as well as any other day," answered Mrs. King, who was always glad to give pleasure, and was delighted to find that the interest of the little people in cooking was still kept up. "But as that is something that requires not only judgment, but strength, it will not be best for the little ones to attempt it for another year or two yet. You three older ones may begin this morning." What was the astonishment of the amateurs when Aunt Jane gravely directed them to take all their materials into the cellar! "To have perfect paste," she said, "you must have a cool place to make it in. To-day the kitchen is very hot, and although your pies would taste just as good, the paste would not be so flaky nor look as handsome if it were made so near the fire. In winter it would do very well." Fortunately, Mrs. Vernon's cellar was dry, airy and welllighted, so that it was a very pleasant place to be in on a hot day. "There's only one thing more I should like to have," said Mrs. King, " and if I lived next door I would send in and get it; and that is, a marble slab to roll the paste on. I always keep one expressly for the purpose." "I know the very thing, Mrs. King," said Edith, "and there is one next door! When our hall-table slab was broken, Papa had it set out in the shed, and there it is now, just as large as life! May I go in and get it?" "It would be rather heavy for you, I think; but if you think your mother would not object to our using it, you and Grace may go and bring it, together."