SOFT CUSTARD 1 cup of rich milk. 2 eggs. 1 tablespoonful sugar. % teaspoonful vanilla✪ Soft Custard. Put the milk on the fire to heat; beat the yolks of the eggs, add the sugar and beat again; stir this into the hot milk, add the salt and stir till the whole grows thick like cream. Then take it off at once; be careful not to let it boil at all or it will be spoiled. Let it get very cold; put it in a glass, beat half of the white of one egg and add this just before serving. Or, whip one spoonful of thick cream and put this on top of the custard. After Mildred had learned to make all these good things, she used to search her cook book for receipts for other things, and as her mother got better she made something new every day. By the time Mother Blair was perfectly well and strong again, she felt she had grown to be a real sick-cook. And the best thing of all was that the doctor said the reason her mother got well so fast was that she had had such nourish- ing and delicious things to eat ! CHAPTEE xnr A DOIiL-AND-LITTLE-GrRL PABTY MOTHER BLAIE had an old school friend coming out to spend the day, and she had written that she must bring her little five year old daughter with her. This wasn't a bit con- venient for the Blairs, because Miss Betty was to give a luncheon for the older people, and Mildred had planned to go to town for the day ; and, of course. Jack couldn't be bothered to help take care of a child. That, surely, was n't man's work, he declared. So Brownie saw that she must entertain the small Helen all by herself, and she sat down to think what she should do for her. * * Five years old, ' ' she said to herself. * * That means dolls, I guess. I 'm pretty old for dolls, but of course I could get Araminta down from the attic, only she 's packed up so cicely that I hate to disturb her. I wonder if five year olds play games? Mother Blair, do you think we could play in the attic with Helen's doll and 192 DOUi-AND-UTTLE-GIEL PAETY 193 Araminta, if I get her out, or what can we do T ' ** Helen has had a bad cough, dear, and I 'm afraid her mother would think that she must stay where there were no draughts. Why don't you have a little bit of a party for herf We could ask four other children about her age — '* **0h, Mother, / know! I'll have a dolls' party, and cook cunning things in tiny little dishes just big enough for dolls to eat. That would be perfectly lovely, and I know Mildred would help me make some of them the day be- fore. ' ' **That would really be ever so much fun,'' Mother Blair said. * * Eun and ask Norah if she has any very little tins and molds that you can use, and I '11 look up some receipts for you. Brownie, that dolls ' party is what I call a really bright idea." Norah was not at all busy just then so she got a kitchen chair and hunted on the top shelf in the tin closet and found several things for Brownie. One was a little tumbler of heavy glass, half the size of a small jelly glass; it' had been used in traveling one summer when the Blairs were younger. Then there were six muflSn tins fastened together like a pan which were never used because they made muflSns so 194 THE FUN OF COOKING tiny that Jack said six were only a bite. And beside these she found a little tin cutter meant to cut vegetables into shapes for soup ; this one was a tube with a star on the end, or rather the outline of one. Norah said that it would make lovely little cookies, each one the size of a five cent piece. Brownie was delighted with it. *'But, Norah, we won't want muffins,*' she said. *'I remember when I was five, I could n't have even one for breakfast — ^not till I was about seven, I guess it was. And Mother says Mrs. Lane is just as partickler as can be about Helen." **I know something you can make in 'em," nodded Norah. **Not muffins. You just wait. You make it out of rice, and rice is awful good for children. ' '

AI-modernized reading of the original text

SOFT CUSTARD 1 cup of rich milk. 2 eggs. 1 tablespoonful sugar. % teaspoonful vanilla. Put the milk on the fire to heat; beat the yolks of the eggs, add the sugar and beat again; stir this into the hot milk, add the salt and stir till the whole grows thick like cream. Then take it off at once; be careful not to let it boil at all or it will be spoiled. Let it get very cold; put it in a glass, beat half of the white of one egg and add this just before serving. Or, whip one spoonful of thick cream and put this on top of the custard. After Mildred had learned to make all these good things, she used to search her cook book for receipts for other things, and as her mother got better she made something new every day. By the time Mother Blair was perfectly well and strong again, she felt she had grown to be a real sick-cook. And the best thing of all was that the doctor said the reason her mother got well so fast was that she had had such nourishing and delicious things to eat ! CHAPTER XIII A DOLL-AND-LITTLE-GIRL PARTY MOTHER BLAIR had an old school friend coming out to spend the day, and she had written that she must bring her little five year old daughter with her. This wasn't a bit convenient for the Blairs, because Miss Betty was to give a luncheon for the older people, and Mildred had planned to go to town for the day ; and, of course. Jack couldn't be bothered to help take care of a child. That, surely, was n't man's work, he declared. So Brownie saw that she must entertain the small Helen all by herself, and she sat down to think what she should do for her. * * Five years old, ' ' she said to herself. * * That means dolls, I guess. I 'm pretty old for dolls, but of course I could get Araminta down from the attic, only she 's packed up so nicely that I hate to disturb her. I wonder if five year olds play games? Mother Blair, do you think we could play in the attic with Helen's doll and DOLL-AND-LITTLE-GIRL PARTY 193 Araminta, if I get her out, or what can we do T ' ** Helen has had a bad cough, dear, and I 'm afraid her mother would think that she must stay where there were no draughts. Why don't you have a little bit of a party for her? We could ask four other children about her age — '* **Oh, Mother, I know! I'll have a dolls' party, and cook cunning things in tiny little dishes just big enough for dolls to eat. That would be perfectly lovely, and I know Mildred would help me make some of them the day before. ' ' **That would really be ever so much fun,'' Mother Blair said. * * Eun and ask Norah if she has any very little tins and molds that you can use, and I '11 look up some receipts for you. Brownie, that dolls ' party is what I call a really bright idea." Norah was not at all busy just then so she got a kitchen chair and hunted on the top shelf in the tin closet and found several things for Brownie. One was a little tumbler of heavy glass, half the size of a small jelly glass; it had been used in traveling one summer when the Blairs were younger. Then there were six muffin tins fastened together like a pan which were never used because they made muffins so tiny that Jack said six were only a bite. And beside these she found a little tin cutter meant to cut vegetables into shapes for soup ; this one was a tube with a star on the end, or rather the outline of one. Norah said that it would make lovely little cookies, each one the size of a five cent piece. Brownie was delighted with it. *'But, Norah, we won't want muffins,*' she said. *'I remember when I was five, I could n't have even one for breakfast — ^not till I was about seven, I guess it was. And Mother says Mrs. Lane is just as particular as can be about Helen." **I know something you can make in 'em," nodded Norah. **Not muffins. You just wait. You make it out of rice, and rice is awful good for children. ' '

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