The fun of cooking

** You see,'^ Mother Blair went on, *Hhe snow is still so fresh and lovely, and the sleighing so good, and the full moon is still coming up so very early, that I thought — '* **0h, I know!*' Jack shouted. **A sleighing partyl'* **Yes,'' said his mother; **to the House in the Woods for supper. Won't that be fun? And you can cook the supper. Only, if you invite seven boys and girls to go with you, we must have plenty of things for them to eat; and of course you will want to cook them all yourselves. ' ' **0f course,'' Mildred said decidedly. **What shall we have for the supper T' **0h, have cheese dreams I'* Jack begged. **The fellows think they 're great I '11 make 'em myself, if you will. I learned how at the Dwights when I was there last week." ''You did!" teased his mother. **But I thought boys didn't cookt" Jack's face grew decidedly red. *'0f course boys cook with a chafing-dish," he explained ; * ' so do men, too. In college, lots of them make Welsh-rabbit and oysters and things like that for spreads, you know. And you can make the same things in a frying-pan on the stove just as well. So I '11 make the dreams up before we go, and cook 'em when we get there. ' ' ''Very well," said his mother; "but I bargain with you that you are to put the receipt in your own cook-book. ' ' And Jack had to promise. Then Mildred and her mother planned the rest of the supper. They were to have oyster stew, because that was what everybody wanted at a sleighing party; and then the cheese dreams, and potatoes, and cocoa ; and Mother Blair said they would have a dish of scrambled eggs for anybody who did not like cheese. And, last of SUPPER IN THE WOODS 31 all, they would have little hot brown biscuits and honey; Fanner Dunn always had beautiful honey. **Now, let us plan things out/' said Mildred. ** You and Brownie and I, Mother, can go out to the House in the Woods by trolley, and get the fires going and the table all ready; and Father and Jack can drive out with the others just at supper-time, and then we can all go back together afterward." This seemed the very best way of managing ; so early one Saturday afternoon they reached the little house, and while Mildred and her mother went in and opened the windows and looked all around to see if everything was as they left it. Brownie ran off for Farmer Dunn, who soon brought wood and made up rousing fires in the rooms. By the time the baskets were unpacked on the kitchen table, he was ready to go back to his house and get milk and cream and eggs and butter and honey. As the Blairs always left the house ready to open at a moment's notice, they had sugar and flour and salt and things like that in the pantry. Mildred and Brownie laid the table, putting on plates and cups and glasses, and they rubbed the forks and spoons and made them as bright as the sunshine. When it was all done, they got a beautiful great bunch of feathery pine branches for a centerpiece, and then it looked exactly as though the table knew there was going to be a party. ^*It is nearly five o'clock,*' their mother caUed to them as they finished. * * It is time we began to get supper. Brownie, here is a receipt for you ; do you think you can manage it all alone? ' ' **0f course,'' said Brownie, with great dignity. * * Only you might just tell me how, first. ' ' Mother Blair laughed, and read the receipt over to her, and told her what to do. STUFFED BAKED POTATOES