Six little cooks

" I think so ; it is only nine o'clock now, and the lunch is not to be served until one. Why, we should be perfect snails if we did not finish it in four hours! Your mamma will set the table before her friends come, so we shall have nothing to do but prepare the eatables. I sent over to her before breakfast, when I first heard that she expected company, to have some potatoes pared and laid in cold water." "What was that for, Aunt Jane?" " You'll see presently. Now let us go to work at once. Get the scales, Rose, and weigh out the materials in Grade's recipe for ' chicken croquettes'; Jessie, you may take the potato-slicer and cut the potatoes, for they have to lie another hour in cold water yet; Grace, I think yon may be trusted to make the soft custard all by yourself; I'll have an eye to you, and tell you if I see anything going wrong." " Are these the potatoes that puff out like little balloons, Aunt Jane?" said Jessie. "Yes, the very same; and you shall fry them, too, so that it will be all your own dish. Now, Rose, as chopping the chicken is merely a mechanical operation, and rather a long one, I'll do that while you get the batter ready to mix with it." When this was done, Mrs. King showed Rose how to make up the croquettes, somewhat in the shape of a short, fat sausage, and while this was going on, she herself grated the stale bread in which they were to be rolled. Then all was set away until it should be time to cook them. Next came the Mayonnaise dressing, which was committed to Grace's care, after she had finished her custard, and Rose undertook to make some drop-cakes. Jessie, who was the youngest, was shown how to make up and melt the chocolate. After Grace had finished the saladdressing, she set about making the breakfast puffs, according to her recipe, and so the morning wore away until past twelve o'clock. " Now it's time to go to work in earnest," said Aunt Jane, whose sharp eyes had been inspecting every operation, while she gave a word of advice to one, of encouragement to another, or of reminder to a third. In the meantime she herself had not been idle, but had cut up a tempting-looking plateful of cold tongue, garnished with pretty sprigs of parsley, prepared the lettuce in a salad-bowl ready to receive the dressing, and neatly trimmed the drop-cakes, which required to be cut apart when they came out of the oven. " Now for a deep frying-pan of hot lard for the potatoes; Jessie, you mustn't think of another thing but your Saratogas from now to lunch time. Gracie may make the chocolate, now that her puffs are off her mind, and Hose, you must fry the croquettes. As it will be some time before they are ready to turn, you may cut up the sponge-cake and stick it full of those almonds that Jessie is cutting up; then pour the wine over it, and lastly the custard, which must be cold by this time, as it has been standing in the ice-box. Now the grand crisis approaches." At five minutes before one o'clock everything was finished and ready to " dish" ; the girls took off their cook-