The Mary Frances cook book

"My, I feel so relieved!" said Mary Frances. "Since that is so, I'll tell you why I'm so excited! Mother is coming home to-day--and--I'm going to get dinner. Isn't it lovely?"

"Mother was asleep," she whispered as though her mother was still in danger of being wakened by any sound--"but I just tip-toed up to the table, and got the book she's been maki...

"Misses Angelina, Marie, Cosette, Lady Gay, Peg, Master Alfonso, why, listen! Here's a letter come for you. What can it be? Pay very strict 'tention while I read it. If you'd go...

"Get out of my way! Here, you, step aside!" (Then a little shriek or two followed by the sound of falling tins.) "Oh, you knocked my nose. There! that makes the fiftieth dent! N...

"I've 'most a mind to tell Mother about the cook book," thought Mary Frances, "but won't she open her eyes when I tell her I've made everything--if I can keep the secret! I do h...

NOTE.--Remember that all measurements are level or even with the top. To divide a spoonful, cut it through the middle lengthwise, for a half; and across that, for one-quarter of...

"MOTHER writes that she is so glad you are giving Billy such good lunches," said Father, looking up from his letter. "I've been waiting a long time for an invitation to lunch, l...

"Yes," replied Tea Pot rather breathlessly. (It seemed to Mary Frances as if he were lifting a heavy weight.) "Yes, here is the place. Somebody else read; I'm too tired."

"Please, Miss,"--the oldest, hungriest-looking tramp she ever saw looked down at her, taking off his worn out cap. "Please, Miss--a cup o' tea--anything? I am that tired and fai...

"GOOD-BYE, Billy! Take good care of Sister. Good-bye, little Housekeeper!" said Mother, leaning from the car window. The children waved "good-bye," and watched the train until i...

"MARY ANN HOOPER is very ailing," said Aunt Maria at the lunch table. She had invited the children over to lunch that day. "She needs nourishment more than anything else, I shou...

"You see, it's this way," she continued as she took her little book and sat in the rocking chair. "I am very anxious to get through every recipe in my cook book before Mother co...

"Oh, I'm not good at story telling! The Aunt told about the funniest recipe she knew,--called 'Merry Land Biscuits,' I think. Anyhow, she said to 'beat 'em twenty minutes with a...

After the games and riddles, Mary Frances excused herself from her guests, and made the cocoa and the pot of tea for her aunt. Then Billy carried in the tray, on which she had p...

"NOW, everything is ready," she said, glancing carefully at the table she had set with her little dishes; "I'll go up and bring the dolls. Wait a minute, Mary Frances," she adde...

"WHY," said Mary Frances, looking over her book next morning at the breakfast table, "to-day's lesson is so easy I think it would be just the time to invite Eleanor over for her...

"OH, hum-m-m! O, yah, yah, yah," yawned Tea Kettle next morning, stretching his funny little arms. "Oh, I say," he shouted, "Wake up! We've overslept. Wake up, everybody! Where'...

"No, child," said Aunty Rolling Pin, smiling; "but perhaps you have learned by this time pretty nearly well enough to do an easy lesson without our help. We can't talk before ot...

"Yes!" explained Mary Frances, "that's it! Aunt Maria is giving me a picnic to 'celebrate my ambition,' she says--whatever that means. Anyhow, Father's coming. He's going to mak...

AFTER one last look, Mary Frances, hearing the sound of carriage wheels, ran to answer the door before the bell rang; but Billy was there, too, and they opened the door together.

"FOR the land's sakes!" cried Aunt Maria. "For the land's sakes! Where in the world has that child been? Look at those hands! Have you been playing in the coal?"

"OH, my!" sighed Mary Frances, gazing at the great pile of dirty dishes on the kitchen table, where she had carried them after the company had gone. "Oh, my, cooking is fun--but...

"Well," Mantel Clock ran on, "the dear little girl that lives in our house is going to learn to cook. What d'you say if we all turn in and help her?"

"Oh!" laughed her mother, as she lifted a slice of toast out on a saucer. "Well, dear, anyway I want you to have some toast with Mother"--and she handed the saucer to Mary Franc...

TO the kitchen door she ran, and was about to rush out, when she thought she heard voices--thin, little voices they were--so she peeped out, for the door was ajar,--and this is...