The fun of cooking

Get a large pineapple and cut off the brush at the top, but leave a little slice of the fruit on it, so it will stand. Scoop out the inside of the pineapple (and when you find a bit of the hard core do not put it with the rest but throw it away) ; cut the pieces all up into small dice. Cut the oranges in halves and take out the pulp with a spoon and mix with the pineapple; cut up the bananas and add these too. Then sweeten with powdered sugar. Set this away in a cold place. In serving it, fill the pineapple and put the brush on again and stand the fruit on a round dish with some heavy, stiff green leaves around it. The one who is served first is passed the plate; she takes off the brush and lays it by the side of the pineapple, and with a ladle dips out some of the inside on her dessert plate. It took quite a time to prepare this, but they all liked to do it, and enjoyed the surprise it was going to be when it was first passed. Mother Blair said she did so hope she might take off the pineapple's cover, and when they came to think of it, as she was always served first, of course she would I A HALLOWE'EN SUPPER 179 Well, the Hallowe'en supper was a perfect success. Jack, though nervous, proved that his camping lessons were not wasted, and Mildred's chafing-dish was as easy to manage as could be. But the next day when they all talked it over, not one of the family and not one of the guests had had a single ghost-dream after all I CHAPTER Xn WHEN MOTHEB BLAIB WAS 8ICK ONE day Mother Blair woke up with a very sore throat, and the doctor said, when he had looked at it, that she mast stay in bed for a day or two, and that Brownie had better go visiting. "But where can I go, school and all!" the little girl asked Mildred very soberly after the doctor had gone. "If I lose my geography lessons now I won't be the top of the class, and I thought I was sure to be ; and when I 'm the very top of all, you know Father gives me a dollar/' "Perhaps Miss Betty would like to have you visit her,*' Mildred said; '* would n't that be fun I You could come in every single day and see how things are going with us, and we could wave at you out of the window—Mother could, I mean, — and it would be just lovely. I '11 run over and ask her if you may come." Miss Betty said she would be perfectly de- WHEN MOTHER BLAIR WAS SICK 181 lighted to have a visit from Brownie, and Mother Blair said in a very croaky voice that it was a bright idea. So that very morning Brownie packed a bag and Jack carried it over for her, and she went visiting, Mildred found she could be excused from school for a day or two, so she became nurse; and Norah said she guessed she could run the house alone after all the years she 'd been learning how; so everything was just as smooth as could be. When her mother's room was made all tidy and she had settled down to take a nap, Mildred ran across to Miss Betty's house to ask her what to give her mother to eat. "The doctor said soft things, because her poor throat is so sore. What do you think I 'd better give her for lunch, Miss Betty?" "Invalids have to have nourishing things, Mildred, strong soups and eggs and cereals with cream, and custards. Suppose you plan to have a cream soup for today and start a meat soup for to-morrow; it takes two days to make that kind, you know. And—let me see—with cream soup you might have an egg, I think, and perhaps junket; that is the very softest thing in the world. Then by night perhaps she can have cream toast; that is perfectly delicious; if my throat feels sore toward night, Mildred, will you please make enough for two? I just love it!" Mildred laughed and promised that she would.