Six little cooks

When the Johnny-cake went into the oven, Grace took charge of the veal and potatoes at the back of the stove, while the little girls toasted bread at the front. When all else was ready to dish, Mabel turned her omelette into the spider, and it was done in a few minutes and sent in to the table smoking hot. Then the girls went to their rooms to wash their hands and take off their aprons, but their flushed faces betrayed at the breakfast table that something unusual had taken place. "What gave you all such rosy cheeks?" inquired Mr. Yernon. " You must have been snowballing, or doing something of that kind." " Give you three guesses to find out, Papa," said Grace, " and if you don't guess rightly you can't have any breakfast." " Jumping two hundred and fifty times from the roof of the coal-shed down to the ground," said her father. "No, not that. Oh, how far off you are! You're not even warm." "Running races with the steam-cars, to see which could travel a mile in the shortest time." " Wrong again ! Why papa, you're perfectly freezing." " Well, as my breakfast is to depend on it," said her fainer, " I think it won't be safe for me to risk another puess. I'll turn over my third one to mamma." It is to be feared that mamma may have received a hint from a glance of Aunt Jane's eyes, for she suggested quite promptly: " Cooking the breakfast." " Right at lastl And what do you think of it, now you know who did it?'! "I think it looks superior to any thing they have at Delmonico's, but you don't mean to say you made this coffee?" " Yes we did — every drop of it! Ask Aunt Jane if we didn't." " I'll tell you what it is," said Mr. Yernon, u I believe there's some hocus-pocus about this matter. Your Aunt Jane gets behind you some how or other, and takes hold of your hands, just as we do of baby's when we make her write a letter; and you get the idea that you have done the whole thing yourselves." " No, no, no! It's all honest Indian. She doesn't come near us. She just sits at one end of the table and tells us what to do, and we do it. She never touches a thing." " I think Aunt Jane deserves a gold medal," said Mr. Yernon. " I wish we could do something by ourselves this afternoon, without troubling her," said Grace. " Don't you think we are enough advanced now, mamma?" " I suppose you might make something very simple. How would ginger-snaps do, for instance?" " Oh, that would be capital 1" exclaimed Grace. " We haven't had any ginger-snaps in an age. Are they hard to make, Aunty?>; " Not at all hard to mix up, but they require a good deal of patience to roll and cut out. However, I don't suppose you would mind that." " Oh, the longer it took the better I should like it! I want to make a good large panful. Please give me the receipt." And Grace drew out her note-book and pencil, which, with a variety of other stores, she always kept at hand in her pocket. " Do let your aunt finish her breakfast in peace!" said Mr. Yernon. " I won't have her plagued all the time. By and by, Grace, you can attack her again, but now let us think of something else." Aunt Jane did not wait to be attacked. After breakfast she gave the girls, of her own accord, the recipes which follow.