The fun of cooking

you. Then you put on a glass of cold water, only half full so it will not spilL Then the plate for the soup cup; and the soup spoon at the side, with the fork for the egg, and the little folded napkin and a cunning little salt and pepper. Next you get the egg and toast ready, put them on a hot plate — hot, Mildred, not just a little warm, — and cover it up with a hot cereal dish turned over it, unless you happen to have a covered china dish that comes on purpose. Stand this at the back of the tray. Get the little junket ready, too, and put the glass on a small plate; but you need not put this on the tray. Let your mother eat the hot things first, and take off the dishes and put the dessert on the tray all by itself. You can get it while she is eating, you know. Then, last of all, you put on the vase of flowers. There — doesn't that look sweet? Mildred said it certainly did ; then she began to poach the egg, and Miss Betty went into Mother Blair *s room and put an extra pillow behind her shoulders and a scarf over her and opened the blinds. She drew a little table close beside the bed and laid a fresh white cover over it, and when the door opened and Mildred came in carefully carrying the white tray with the WHEN MOTHER BLAIR WAS SICK 189 . good things to eat on it and the pretty geraniums, her mother was delighted. "Oh, how good it looks," she exclaimed. * ' Mildred, did you really make that soup f And poach that beautiful eggf And actually make that junket? Well, I never did see anything so perfectly lovely. I 'm proud to have such a daughter !'* Then she ate everything, and declared her throat was almost well already. In spite of that, however, the doctor made I Mrs. Blair stay in bed several days, so that I Mildred learned to make quite a number of new { dishes for sick people. For one breakfast she \ gave her cereal with cream and bits of dates; for one luncheon she had the chicken broth, and for one supper cream toast and baked custard ; j she had goldenrod eggs, too, when her mother's j throat was better, and baked apple. All of these things she wrote down in her book so she would J, not forget how to make any of them. k CEREAL WITH DATES ^ 1 heaping tablespoonful oatmeal. i 1 cup of water. y^ teaspoonful of salt. Mix, put in a double boiler and cook for one hour. Five minutes before taking this off the fire stir in t 4 dateS) washed and cut into small pieces. je Serve with cream. H CREAM TOAST 2 slices of nice brown, dry toast. % cup of cream. % teaspoonf ul butter. % teaspoonful flour. ^ teaspoonful salt. Rub the melted butter and flour; beat the cream till it scalds, or almost boils; mix together and pour slowly over one slice of the toast in a deep dish; then put on the sec-. ond slice and pour the rest of the cream over that. Serve very hot. GOLDENROD EGGS y2 tablespoonful butter. % tablespoonful flour. ^ teaspoonful salt. % cup hot milk. Rub the butter and flour, and add the milk and salt. Have ready 1 hard boiled egg. (Boil ten minutes.) 1 slice of toast. Cut the egg in half, take off the white part and chop it ; stir this into the white sauce. Cut the crust off the toast and pour over; then quickly rub the egg yolk through the sieve and sprinkle over all. Keep the sauce and toast hot in the oven until you put on the yolk; serve very hot in a covered dish. BAKED APPLE Peel and core a large sour apple Put in a deep* earthen dish, fill the center with sugar, and just cover the bottom of the dish with water. Bake in a hot oven till WHEN MOTHER BLAIR WAS SICK 191 soft, basting every five minutes with the syrup in the bottom of the dish. (That is, with a spoon pour the juice over the apple.) Serve hot or cold, with cream. Mildred could already make baked custard, so she did not need a new rule for that. But soft-boiled custard she had to learn.