The fun of cooking

Cut a seedless orange in halves; take out the pulp with a spoon; use alone, or mix with bits of banana or other fruit; or use chopped celery and apple together. Add the dressing. *' There 1'' said Miss Betty, triumphantly, as Mildred read the receipts aloud when she had copied them. **If Jack doesn't like those, he is n't the boy I take him for. And you see, Mildred, when you have no salad for him, you can sometimes put in a nice stalk of celery; and when you have had the same fruit over and over, you can just give him a fruit salad. I do believe I '11 start on a long journey and take a whole week's supply of lunches along. All these receipts make me feel just like it!" **0h, do let me go too," begged Mildred. **So you shaU," laughed Miss Betty. ^*But before we start, I must tell you one thing more : if you want an ab-so-lute-ly perfect lunch, you must always have a surprise for the very last thing of aU." *'How do you make one?" asked Brownie, curiously. **0h, you don't make them at all, or at least not usually ; a surprise is something which has to be eaten last of all, after all the sandwiches and other things are gone, for a sort of dessert ; sometimes I had a piece of maple-sugar, or a bit of sweet chocolate, or a couple of marshmallows ; sometimes it was a fig or two, or a few dates. But it was always hidden down in the very bottom of the box, and everything had to be finished up before I opened the little paper it was in. Honestly, I don't think boys need surprises at all, because they will eat everything up any way, but often girls wiU skip a sandwich or two, unless they know about the surprise. ' * * * When I take my lunch, I shall have one every time,*' said Brownie. **So shall 1,'^ laughed Mother Blair. **I shall certainly give Jack one every day, because of Caesar,*' said Mildred. The next morning bright and early, Mildred hurried to get Jack's luncheon all ready before breakfast, and her mother said she would help her, just for once. First they made three beautiful thin sandwiches out of bread and butter spread with the nice beefsteak filling, and wrapped these up by themselves and put them in one comer of the box; then in the opposite comer went the surprise, this time four little chocolate crackers, all wrapped up carefully ; on top of them, to hide them, went three more sandwiches, made of brown bread and butter and cheese; then the deviled egg filled the comer on top of the other pile, and one of Norah's cakes was put opposite. ''Now for the fruit, '^ said Mother Blair. ''What is there?'' Mildred said there was an orange, but it would not go in the box. "Oh, you don't give anybody an orange whole for luncheon ! Peel it first, then break it carefully in halves, wrap each half up in paper by itself, and you will see how well it fits in and how easy it wiU be to eat when you have no fruitknife or orange-spoon to use with it. Now that is all, and it 's what I call a perfectly delicious luncheon, don 't you f ' ' ^^ Perfectly I" said Mildred, rapturously, as she tied up the box. "I guess the other boys will wish they had lunches just exactly like it ; and I think it 's very interesting to do them up, too." That afternoon, when Jack came home from school, he shouted up the stairs : "Say, Mildred, what will you take to do up lunches for the crowd? They told me to ask you. They said they had never seen anything so good. Where is that Caesar? I ^11 do about ten pages for you if you want me to. ^ ' When the lesson was over, Mildred hugged Jack gratefully. **I can do it alone in no time now, because you ^re such a good teacher, * ' she said, as Jack squirmed away. **And, when summer comes, just think of all the picnic lunches I can do up for everybody!**