White Mountain Cream Icing for Cakes

1 C-granulated sugar 1/8 t-cream tartar 1/4 C-water 1 egg white 1/2 t-vanilla

Boil the sugar, water and cream of tartar together without stirring. Remove from fire as soon as the syrup hairs when dropped from a spoon. Pour very slowly onto the stiffly beaten egg white. Beat vigorously with sweeping strokes until cool. If icing gets too hard to spread, add a little warm water and keep beating. Add extract and spread on cakes. Decorate with tiny pink candies.

BOB HELPS TO GET DINNER

"GUESS who!" said a voice behind Bettina, as two hands blinded her eyes.

"Why, Bob, dear! Good for you! How did you get home so early?"

"I caught a ride with Dixon in his new car. And I thought you might need me to help get dinner; it's nice to be needed! But here I've been picturing you toiling over a hot stove, and, instead, I find you on the porch with a magazine, as cool as a cucumber!"

"The day of toiling over a hot stove in summer is over. At least for anyone with sense! But I'm glad you did come home early, and you _can_ help with dinner. Will you make the French dressing for the salad? See, I'll measure it out, and you can stir it this way with a fork until it's well mixed and a little thick."

"I know a much better way than that. Just watch your Uncle Bob; see? I'll put it in this little Mason jar and shake it. It's a lot easier and--there you are! We'll use what we need tonight, put the jar away in the ice-box, and the next time we can give it another good shaking before we use it."

"Why, Bob, what an ingenious boy you are! I never would have thought of that!"

"You married a man with brains, Betty dear! What is there besides the salad?"

"Halibut steak. It's Friday, you know, and there is such good inexpensive fish on the market. A pound is plenty for us. The potatoes are ready for the white sauce, the beans are in the fireless cooker, and for dessert there is fresh pineapple sliced. The pineapple is all ready. Will you get it, dear? In the ice-box in a covered jar."

"Why didn't you slice it into the serving dish?"

"Because it had to be covered tight. Pineapple has a penetrating odor, and milk and butter absorb it in no time."

"What else shall I do, Madam Bettina?"

"Well, you may fix the lemon for the fish. No, not sliced; a slice is too hard to handle. Just cut it in halves and then once the other way, in quarters; see? You may also cut up a little of that parsley for the creamed new potatoes. That reminds me that I am going to have parsley growing in a kitchen window box some day. Now you can take the beans out of the cooker, and I'll put butter sauce on them. No, it isn't really a sauce,--just melted butter with salt and pepper. There, Bobby dear! Dinner is served, and you helped! How do you like the coreopsis on the table?"

"You always manage to have flowers of some kind, don't you, Betty? I'm growing so accustomed to that little habit of yours that I suppose I wouldn't have any appetite if I had to eat on an ordinary undecorated table!"

"Don't you make fun of me, old fellow! You'd have an appetite no matter when, how or what you had to eat! But things are good tonight, aren't they?"

Bob had helped to prepare:

Halibut Steak New Potatoes in Cream String Beans Butter Sauce Bread Butter Tomato, Cucumber and Pimento Salad French Dressing Sliced Fresh Pineapple

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Halibut Steak= (Two portions)

2/3 lb. Halibut Steak 3 T-flour 1/2 t-salt 1/4 t-paprika

Wash one pound of Halibut steak and wipe dry. Cut in two pieces. Roll in flour, and cook ten minutes in a frying pan in hot fat. Brown on one side, and then on the other. Season with salt and paprika. Serve very hot.

String Beans with Butter Sauce= (Two portions)

1-1/2 C-string beans 2 C-water 1 T-butter 1 t-salt 1/4 t-paprika

Remove ends and strings from green beans. Add water and cook over a moderate fire for twenty-five minutes. Drain off the water, add butter, salt and paprika. Reheat and serve.

Tomato, Cucumber and Pimento Salad= (Two portions)

1 tomato sliced 1/2 C-sliced cucumbers 1 T-pimento cut fine 1 t-salt 1/4 t-paprika 2 pieces lettuce

Arrange lettuce on serving dishes. Place portions of tomato, cucumber and pimento on the lettuce. Sprinkle with salt and paprika. Serve with French dressing.

French Dressing= (Two portions)

4 T-olive oil 2 T-vinegar 1/2 t-salt 1/4 t-paprika

Mix ingredients, which have been thoroughly chilled, and beat until the mixture thickens. Pour over the vegetables.

Pineapple Sliced= (Two portions)

1 pineapple 1/2 C-sugar

Remove the skin and eyes from the pineapple. Cut crosswise in half-inch slices, and the slices in cubes, at the same time discarding the core. Sprinkle with sugar and stand in a cold place for an hour before serving.

CHAPTER VI

COUSIN MATILDA CALLS

"HELLO, is this you, Bettina? This is Mother! I'll have to speak in a low voice. Who do you think is here? No,--Cousin Matilda! Just between trains, but she says she must see how you are 'situated'! Clementine has such a wonderful establishment now, you know! No, of course not, but I want her to see how happy you are. She seems to have the idea that an 'establishment' is necessary! Just to see the house, you know! I know the porch isn't ready, but don't worry! About three, then. Good-by!"

That afternoon Bettina looked anxiously through the living room window across the bare little front yard. If only critical Cousin Matilda had waited a few months before coming! But then, the only thing to do was to be as cheerful about it as possible----

"So this is little Bettina!" said a majestic voice at the door. "And how is love in a cottage? How charmingly simple everything is!"

"They planned it all just as they wanted it," explained Bettina's mother proudly. "On a small scale, of course, but perhaps some day----"

"But I couldn't ever be happier than I am right now, Cousin Matilda. What do you think of our big living room? Browns and tans seemed best and safest in a little house like this, and I knew I shouldn't tire of them as of any other color! I do so dislike going into a bungalow with one little room in blue, another in pink, and so on. The walls are all alike, even in the bedrooms. And the curtains are just simple cotton voiles, ecru in the living and dining rooms, and white in the bedrooms. No side curtains to catch the dust and keep out the air. But I beg your pardon for seeming too complacent; I love it all so that I just can't help boasting."

"What is this, my dear? A wedding gift?"

"Yes, isn't it lovely? It is a sampler in cross-stitch that Bob's great-great-grandmother made! His Aunt Margaret had it put under the glass cover of this tea cart, and gave it to us for a wedding present. See, the cart is brown willow, and I think it looks well with our furniture, don't you? This is to be a living porch, but we haven't furnished it yet except for this green matting rug. And Bob brought that hanging basket home from the florist's the other day. . . . Oh, yes, this is my Japanese garden! Bob laughs at me, I have so much fun watching it."

"What a lovely table decoration those red cherries make in your dining room, my dear! Like a picture, in that piece of dull green pottery!"

"Yes, Bob says I decorate the table differently for every meal! We use this breakfast alcove for breakfast, Sunday evening tea, or any informal meal when we are alone. You see how convenient it is! I do want to put a round serving table with leaves on our living porch. Then we can eat there on warm evenings in summer."

"Bettina is very accomplished in economy," said her mother. "You must let her tell you some of her methods."

"Clementine would be interested, I'm sure," said Cousin Matilda in her languid way. "Is this your guest room?"

"Yes, and Bob and I are proud of that. We white enameled the furniture ourselves! It is some that we found in a second-hand store, and it was certainly a bargain, though it didn't look it at the time. I sewed the rags together for these blue and white rugs. Bob made that little open desk out of a small table that we found somewhere. Now that it is white, too, I think it is cunning. And, Cousin Matilda, I give you three guesses as to the place in which I keep my sewing machine!"

"Why, I haven't seen it yet. In the kitchen?"

"Goodness, no! Well, I'll tell you! This looks like a dressing table, but is merely a shelf with a mirror above it. The shelf has a cretonne cover and 'petticoat' that reaches the floor. And underneath it--behold the sewing machine! Bob made the shelf high enough and wide enough to let the sewing machine slip under it! But, Cousin Matilda, you must be tired of Bettina's economies! Please sit down with mother in the living room and I will get the 'party.'"

And Bettina wheeled her tea cart into the kitchen, returning with luncheon napkins, plates, glasses, a pitcher of iced fruit juice, a plate of little chocolate cakes, and several sprays of wild roses.

"What delicious little cakes, Bettina! At least you can't be called economical when you serve such rich and dainty food as this!"

"I must plead guilty still, Cousin Matilda. I made these little cakes partly from dry bread crumbs. The fruit juice is mostly from the pineapple which Bob had for dessert last night. I cooked the core with about two cups of water and added it to the lemonade."

"Bettina, Bettina! How did you learn these things? Robert is certainly a lucky man, and I'm sure that some day he will be a wealthy one! You must give me the recipes you used!"

And Bettina wrote them down as follows:

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Little Chocolate Cakes= (Twelve cakes)

2 eggs 1/4 C-butter 1/2 C-sugar 1 C-dry bread crumbs 3 T-flour 1 t-vanilla 3 squares chocolate

Cream the butter, add sugar, and cream the mixture. Add the beaten eggs and stir well. Add melted chocolate, bread crumbs, flour and flavoring. Spread the mixture very thinly on a buttered pan, and bake twenty minutes in a slow oven. Shape with a tiny biscuit cutter, and put together in pairs with mountain cream icing between and on top. (Icing recipe already given.)

Fruit Juice= (Eight glasses)

1 C-sugar 2 C-water 1-1/2 C-lemon juice

Boil sugar and water ten minutes without stirring, add lemon juice, and any other fruit juices. Cool and bottle. Keep on ice and dilute with ice water when desired for use. Serve mint leaves with the fruit juice.

_The market is full of delights in July: Fresh vegetables, berries, red cherries for pie! Good housewives and telephones seldom agree, So market yourself! You can buy as you see!_

CHAPTER VII

A NEW-FASHIONED SUNDAY DINNER

"YOU will go to church with us this morning, Bettina?" asked Bob's cousin Henry, known also as the Rev. Henry Clinkersmith, as he came into Bettina's immaculate kitchen one Sunday.

"Yes, indeed, I will go!" Bettina answered him. "Is it nearly ten o'clock? Oh, yes, nine forty-five. I'll go at once and get ready."

Cousin Henry had arrived late Saturday evening. He was filling the pulpit of a friend that Sunday morning.

Bettina finished arranging the low bowl of pansies which was to be her table decoration. "For the dinner table," she explained to Cousin Henry.

"And Bob," she said as they walked to church (Cousin Henry was ahead with an old friend), "I do believe he was worried about dinner. There wasn't a trace of any preparation to be seen! You know I made the cake and the salad dressing yesterday, and the lettuce was on the ice. The sherbet was on the porch (I bought it, you know), and the lamb and potatoes were in the cooker."

"Well, let him worry! How long will it take to get it ready after we get home?"

"About fifteen minutes. The table is set, but I'll have to warm the plates and take things up. Then there's the gravy to make, of course."

"All I can say is this," said Cousin Henry at dinner, as he passed his plate for a second helping, "since you've explained the mysteries of the fireless cooker, I realize how it would have helped those cold Sunday dinners of the past generation. The women could have obeyed the fourth commandment and given their families a good Sunday dinner, too!"

That day they had:

Leg of Lamb with Potatoes Lamb Gravy Head Lettuce Thousand Island Dressing Mint Sauce Bread Butter Pineapple Sherbet Bettina's Loaf Cake Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Roast Leg of Lamb with Potatoes= (Ten portions)

A 4-lb. leg of lamb 6 large potatoes 1/4 t-paprika 1 T-salt 2 T-lard

Wash the lamb with a damp cloth. Wipe dry and sprinkle with two teaspoons of salt. Place the lard in a frying-pan. When hot, add the lamb, and brown well on all sides. Place the meat in the fireless utensil. Sprinkle the potatoes with salt and paprika. Arrange these about the leg of lamb. Place the disks, heated for baking, over and under the baking pan. Cook three hours in the fireless. Use the drippings for gravy.

Lamb Gravy= (Four portions)

4 T-drippings 2/3 C-water 2 T-flour 1/2 t-salt

Place half of the drippings in a sauce-pan. Add the flour, and allow it to brown. Add slowly the water, salt and the rest of the drippings (two tablespoonsful). Boil one minute.

Mint Sauce= (Four portions)

1/4 C-mint leaves 1/2 C-boiling water 2 T-sugar 4 T-vinegar 1/8 t-paprika 1/4 t-salt

Chop the mint leaves very fine. Add the boiling water and sugar. Cover closely and let stand one-half hour. Add the vinegar, pepper and salt.

Loaf Cake (Bettina's Nut Special)= (Twelve pieces)

1/3 C-butter 1 C-"C" sugar 1 egg 1-1/2 C-flour 1/2 t-cinnamon 3 t-baking powder 1/4 C-nut-meats, cut fine 1/4 t-salt 2/3 C-milk 1 t-vanilla 1/2 t-lemon extract

Cream the butter, add the sugar and the egg. Mix well. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nut-meats, salt, milk, vanilla and lemon extract. Beat two minutes. Pour into a loaf-cake pan prepared with waxed paper. Bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven.

CHAPTER VIII

CELEBRATING THE FOURTH

"NOW, boys, run and play while Alice and I set the picnic table!" said Bettina to Bob and Mr. Harrison. "See if the fish are biting! Cultivate your patience as well as your appetites and we'll surprise you soon!"

"Bettina, let me help you unpack. Everything looks so dainty and interesting!" said Alice, as Bob and Mr. Harrison strolled off toward the river. "You ought to have allowed me to bring something, although I'll admit that I do enjoy being surprised. You were a dear to bring me with you!"

"I?" said Bettina. "Of course I'm glad to have you here--no one is better fun--but I wish you had heard something that Bob told me. He and Harry Harrison were planning to go fishing today, all by themselves, until Harry suggested that Bob might like to bring me along. And then he added as an afterthought, that as three is a crowd, Miss Alice might be induced to come too. (Why is it that 'Miss Alice' or 'Miss Kate' or 'Miss May' always sounds so like a confirmed bachelor?) Bob chuckled when he told me how careless and offhand Harry tried to be!"

"Betty, how pretty those pasteboard plates are with the flag-seals pasted on them!"

"I saw some ready-made Fourth of July plates, but it was more economical to make my own. And how do you like the red, white and blue paper napkins and lunch cloth? 'Lunch paper,' I ought to say, I suppose. Alice, you arrange the fruit in the center in this basket, with some napkins around it, and with these little flags sticking out of it in every direction. But first, my dear, please tell me why you changed the subject when I was speaking of Mr. Harrison?"

"Those devilled eggs wrapped in frilled tissue-paper look just like torpedoes."

"Alice, Alice, I learned something new about you today. Harry said that society girls got on his nerves, but that 'Miss Alice' seemed sensible enough!"

"Goodness, Betty, he has disagreed with every single thing I've said, so far! If he is being pleasant behind my back, I don't see why he should be so disapproving in his manner to me! But if he is really beginning to think me sensible, let us by all means encourage him! Hide my frivolous new hat in the lunch-basket, and give me something useful to be doing. Can't I appear to be mixing the salad? . . . Honestly, Betty, I do get tired of society as a single interest. But what else is there for me to do? Go into settlement work? I'd be a joke at that! Learn to design jewelry? Take singing lessons?"

"Try the good old profession of matrimony. Why are you so fickle, Alice, my dear?"

"I'm not; it's the men! Every sensible one I meet is--well, disagreeable to me!"

"Meaning Harry Harrison? He appears to be taking quite an interest, at least!"

"That is merely his reforming instinct coming to the surface. But--is everything ready now? We'll sing a few bars of the Star Spangled Banner, and I'm sure the men will come immediately!"

The lunch table was set with:

Lobster and Salmon Salad Ham Sandwiches Nut Bread Sandwiches Pickles Radishes Potato Chips Devilled Eggs Moist Chocolate Cake Bananas Oranges Torpedo Candies Lemonade

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Lobster and Salmon Salad= (Four portions)

1 C-salmon 1/2 C-lobster 1 C-diced cucumber or celery 6 sweet pickles cut fine 3 hard-cooked eggs, sliced 1 t-salt 1/2 C-salad dressing

Mix the ingredients in the order given. Use a silver fork for mixing. Garnish with lettuce leaves.

Ham Sandwiches= (Four portions)

1/2 C-chopped ham 2 T-pickles 1 T-chopped olives 3 T-salad dressing 12 slices bread

Mix ham, olives and pickles with salad dressing and spread on lettuce or nasturtium leaves between buttered slices of bread. Trim off the crusts, and cut the sandwiches in fancy shapes.

Devilled Eggs= (Six eggs)

6 hard-cooked eggs 1 t-vinegar 1/4 t-mustard 1 t-melted butter 1/4 t-chopped parsley 1/4 t-salt

Shell the eggs, cut lengthwise in half, remove yolks, mash them and add vinegar, mustard, melted butter, parsley and salt. Refill the whites and put pairs together. Wrap in tissue paper with frilled edges to represent torpedoes.

Moist Chocolate Cake= (Ten portions)

1/3 C-butter 1 C-sugar 2 eggs 1/2 C-hot mashed potatoes 1 ounce melted chocolate 1/4 C-milk 1 C-flour 1-3/4 t-baking powder 1/2 t-cinnamon 1/4 t-clove 1/2 t-nutmeg 1 t-vanilla

Cream the butter, add the sugar. Mix well. Add the egg yolks, slightly beaten, and the potato. Stir, add the chocolate, milk and then all the dry ingredients which have been mixed and sifted together. Fold in the white of the eggs beaten stiffly. Add the vanilla. Pour into two layer-cake pans which have been prepared with waxed paper. Bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes. Ice with white mountain cream icing.

CHAPTER IX

UNCLE JOHN AND AUNT LUCY MAKE A VISIT

UNCLE JOHN and Aunt Lucy had driven Bob and Bettina home from a Sunday spent in the country.

"Do come in," begged Bettina, "and have a little lunch with us. After such a bountiful dinner, we really ought not to be hungry, but I confess that the lovely drive home has given me an appetite. And you've never been here for a meal! Don't be frightened, Uncle John, I really thought of this yesterday, and my cupboard isn't entirely bare. It would be so much fun to show you our things and the house!"

"I'm not afraid I won't be fed well," said Uncle John, "but those clouds are black in the east. If it should rain we'd have trouble getting home. Besides, I don't like to have the car standing out in a storm."

"I don't believe it'll rain, John," said comfortable Aunt Lucy. "And if it does, well, we'll manage somehow. I, for one, would like to see Bettina's kitchen--and all the rest of her house," she added.

Bettina arranged the dainty little meal on the porch table, and Aunt Lucy and Uncle John sat down with good appetites.

"This looks almost too pretty to eat," said he as he looked at his plate with its slice of jellied beef on head lettuce, served with salad dressing, and its fresh crisp potato chips. And the nasturtium and green leaf lay beside them.

"Have a radish and a sandwich, Uncle John," said Bettina. "We have plenty, if not variety. Our only dessert is fresh pears."

"But it all tastes mighty good!" said Uncle John. "Say, Bob, it is beginning to rain, I believe!"

"Sure enough, a regular storm! We must put the car in the empty garage across the street. I'm sure we can get permission." And he and Uncle John hurried out.

"It will blow over, I'm sure," said Aunt Lucy.

"But if it doesn't--why, Aunt Lucy, stay here all night! We'd love to have you! The guest room is always ready. I know you'll be comfortable, and they can manage without you at home for once, I'm sure."

"Of course they'll be all right, and it would be quite exciting to be 'company' for a change. If only Uncle John thinks he can do it!"

"It looks as if there'll be nothing else to do," said Uncle John, when he and Bob returned. "Not but what I'd enjoy it--but I haven't been away from home a night for--how long is it, Lucy?"

"Seven years last May, John. All the more reason why this'll do you good."

"Oh, I'm so glad you'll really stay!" said Bettina. "Now tell me what you like for breakfast!"

"Anything you have except those new fashioned breakfast foods," Uncle John replied. "I might feed 'em to my stock, now, but not to a human being. But don't you worry about me, Betty! Because I don't worry about the breakfast proposition. Bob here is a pretty good advertisement of the kind of cooking you can do!"

The lunch that night consisted of:

Jellied Beef Potato Chips Radishes Peanut Butter Sandwiches Iced Tea Fresh Pears

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Jellied Beef= (Four portions)

1 C-cold chopped cooked beef 1/2 T-chopped onion 1 T-chopped pimento 1/2 t-salt 1/4 t-pepper 1 T-chopped parsley 1 T-lemon juice 2 t-granulated gelatin 1 T-cold water 1/2 C-boiling water

Soak the gelatin in one tablespoon cold water for three minutes. Add the boiling water and dissolve thoroughly. Add the meat, onion, pimento, salt, pepper, lemon juice and parsley. Stir well together and turn into a mould that has been moistened with cold water. (A square or rectangular mould is preferable.) Stand in a cold place for two hours. When cold and firm, unmould on lettuce leaves and cut into slices. Salad dressing may be served with it.

Radishes= (Four portions)

12 radishes 1 C-chopped ice

Wash the radishes thoroughly with a vegetable brush. Cut off the long roots and all but one inch of green tops. These tops make the radishes easier to handle and more attractive. Serve in a bowl of chopped ice.

Peanut Butter Sandwiches= (Twelve sandwiches)

4 T-peanut butter 1/8 t-salt 1 t-butter 1 T-salad dressing 12 slices of bread 12 uniform pieces of lettuce

Cream the peanut butter, add the butter. Cream again, add the salt and salad dressing, mixing well. Cut the bread evenly. Butter one side of the bread very thinly with the peanut butter mixture. Place the lettuce leaf on one slice and place another slice upon it, buttered side down. Press firmly and neatly together. Cut in two crosswise. Arrange attractively in a wicker basket.

RUTH INSPECTS BETTINA'S KITCHEN

"MAY I come in?" said a voice at the screen door. "I came the kitchen way because I hoped that you would still be busy with the morning's work, and I might learn something. You see" (and Ruth blushed a little), "we are thinking of building a house and we have lots of ideas about every room but the kitchen. Neither Fred nor I know the first thing about that, so I told him that I would just have to consult you."

"How dear of you, Ruth!" said Bettina, as she put away the breakfast dishes. "Well, you shall have the benefit of everything that I know. Bob and I began with the kitchen when we planned this little house. It seemed so important. I expected to spend a great deal of time here, and I was determined to have it cheerful and convenient. I never could see why a kitchen should not be a perfectly beautiful room, as beautiful as any in the whole house!"

"Yours is, Bettina," said Ruth, warmly, as she looked around her. "No wonder you can cook such fascinating little meals. It is light, and sunny and clean looking--oh, immaculate!--and has such a pleasant view!"

"I wanted it to have lots of sunshine. We had the walls painted this shade of yellow, because it seemed pretty and cheerful. Perhaps you won't care to have white woodwork like this, but you see it is plain and I don't find it hard to keep clean out here on the edge of town! I think it is so pretty that I don't expect to regret my choice. Another thing, Ruth, do get a good grade of inlaid linoleum like this. I know the initial expense is greater, but a good piece will last a long time, and will always look well."

"How high the sink is, Bettina!"

"Thirty-six inches. You see, I'm not very tall and yet I have always found that every other sink I tried was too low for solid comfort. The plumbers have a way of making them all alike--thirty-two inches from the floor, I think. They were scandalized because I asked them to change the regulation height, and yet, I find this exactly right. And isn't it a lovely white enameled one? I am happy whenever I look at it! Don't laugh, Ruth; a sink is a very important piece of furniture! I had always liked this kind with the grooved drain-board on each side, sloping just a little toward the center. And see how easily I can reach up and put away the dishes in the cupboard, you see. I don't like a single dish or utensil in sight when the kitchen is in order. This roll of paper toweling here by the sink is very convenient for wiping off the table or taking grease off pans and dishes or even for drying glass and silver. A roll lasts a long time, and certainly does save dishcloths and towels.

"Do you use your fireless cooker often?"

"Every day of the year--I do believe. I cook breakfast food in it, and all kinds of meats except those that are boiled or fried. Then it is splendid for steaming brown bread and baking beans, and oh, so many other things! Mother keeps hers under the kitchen table, but I find it more convenient here at the right of the stove--on a box just level with the stove. Next, O Neophyte, you may observe the stove. The oven is at the side, high up so that one need not stoop to use it. It has a glass oven door through which I can watch my baking."

"I like this white enameled table. And the high stool must be convenient, too."

"It is splendid. Ruth, haven't you an old marble topped table at home? It would be just the thing for pastry making."

"Yes, I do know of one, I think, and I'll have the lower part enameled white."

"Fred can do it himself. Let him help to fix things up, and he'll be all the more interested in them, and in helping you use them."

"Bettina, this is an adorable breakfast alcove! What fun you must have every morning! If we have one, I don't believe we'll ever use the dining room. How convenient! Here come the waffles--hot from the stove! Fred, do have a hot muffin!"

"Not at the same meal, Ruth!"

"No, he'll be fortunate if he gets anything to eat at all! He isn't marrying a Bettina. But he says he's satisfied. Bettina, does Bob help get breakfast?"

"Indeed he does. He loves to make coffee in the electric percolator and toast on the toaster. He says that an electric toaster and plenty of bath towels are the real necessities of life, but I say I cannot live without flowers and a fireplace. Oh, you will have such fun, Ruth! Let Fred help you all he will."

"I'm hearing all this advice!" suddenly shouted a big voice in her ear. "Look here, Mrs. Bettina, does Bob know that you are advising your friends to train their husbands just as you are training him?"

"Fred, you old eavesdropper! I hope that Ruth makes you get breakfast every single morning to pay for this! Aren't you ashamed? Don't you know that listeners never hear any good of themselves?"

"I suppose Fred knew he needn't worry," said rosy Ruth, as she took his arm. "Look, Fred, isn't it a dear little house? May he see it all, Bettina?"

"Yes, if he'll explain how a busy man can get away at this hour of the morning."

"Well, you see I was on my way to the office when I caught a glimpse of Ruth's pink dress at your back door. I happened to think that she said she didn't get a recipe for those 'skyrocket rolls' that you had at your party the other day. I just thought I'd have to remind her, for the sake of my future."

"What under the shining sun! Oh, pinwheel biscuits!"

"Yes--that's it!"

"Why--all right. I have it filed away in my card-index. Here--with a picture of them pasted on the card. I cut it out of the magazine that gave the recipe. They are delicious."

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Pinwheel Biscuits= (Fifteen biscuits)

2 C-flour 4 t-baking powder 3 T-lard 1/2 t-salt 3/4 C-milk 1/3 C-stoned raisins 2 T-sugar 2 T-melted butter 1/2 t-cinnamon

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, work in the lard with a knife, add gradually the milk, mixing with the knife to a soft dough. Toss on a floured board, roll one inch thick, spread with butter, and sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon, which have been well mixed. Press in the raisins. Roll up the mixture evenly as you would a jelly roll. Cut off slices, an inch thick--flatten a little and place in a tin pan. Bake in a hot oven for fifteen minutes. (These are similar to the cinnamon rolls made from yeast sponge.)

CHAPTER XI

BETTINA'S BIRTHDAY GIFT

"YOUR set, Bob," said Bettina, as she gathered up the tennis balls. "But please say you think I'm improving! Oh, there'll come a time when I'll make you a stiff opponent, but I'll have to work up my service first! It's time to go home to breakfast now, but hasn't it been fun?"

"Fine, Betty! We'll do it again! I don't object at all to getting up early when I'm once up! And we ought to get out and play tennis before breakfast every day."

"I knew you'd like it when you'd tried it once. But it took my birthday to make you willing to celebrate this way."

"Just you wait till you see what I have for you at home! I made it all myself, with a little help from Ruth!"

"Oh, Bob, is that what you've been doing all these evenings? I'm so anxious to see it! I've begrudged the time you've spent all alone hammering and sawing away down in the basement, but I didn't let myself even wonder what it was you were making, since you had asked me not to look."

"Well, while you're beginning the breakfast, I'll be bringing your birthday gift upstairs. Then I can help you."

In a short time, when Bettina was arranging the cheerful hollyhocks on the table, she heard a low whistle behind her. There stood Bob--looking like a sandwich-man, with a brightly flowered cretonne screen draped about him.

"Well, how do you like it?"

"Oh, Bob, it's the sewing-screen I've been wanting, and it just matches the cretonne bedroom hangings! Here are the little pockets for mending and darning materials--and the larger ones for the unfinished work! How beautifully it is made--and won't it be convenient! It will be useful as a screen, and also as a place for those sewing things, for I have no good place at all in which to keep them! It will be decorative, too! And how light it is! I can carry it so easily, and work beside it on the porch or in the living room!"

"Glad you like it! Ruth designed it, and made the pockets. I did the carpenter work."

"Bob, it's a lovely birthday gift, and I appreciate it all the more because you made it yourself. How pretty it is with all the woodwork enameled white!"

"I wanted it to match the bedroom things. Well, is that coffee done yet? Tennis certainly does give me an appetite!"

Breakfast consisted of:

Iced Cantelope Poached Eggs on Toast Toast Apple Sauce Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Poached Eggs= (Two portions)

2 eggs 1 t-butter 1 t-salt 1 pt. water, boiling

Butter the bottom of a saucepan or frying-pan. Fill half full of boiling water. Break the eggs one at a time in a sauce dish, and slip them very gently into the pan of boiling water. The eggs will lower the temperature of the water to a point below the boiling point. Keep the water at this point (below boiling). Allow the eggs to remain in the water four to six minutes, or until the desired consistency. Remove from the water with a skimmer and serve on slices of toast which are hot, buttered, and slightly moistened with water. The proper length of time for poaching eggs is until a white film has formed over the yolks and the white is firm. A tin or aluminum egg poacher is very convenient. When using rings, butter the rings, fill each compartment with an egg, and dip into the boiling water. These are inexpensive, and economical, as no part of the egg is wasted.

Toast= (Four Pieces)

4 slices bread 2 T-butter

Toast slices of bread one-half an inch thick on the broiler directly under the flame, or on a toaster fitted for a burner on top of the stove. Brown on one side, then turn and brown on the other. When both sides are an even golden brown, butter one side, care being taken to butter the edges. Set the toast on an enamel plate or tin pie-pan in the oven, until all the pieces are ready for serving. Always serve toast very hot.

Apple Sauce= (Two portions)

4 apples 1/3 C-water 4 T-sugar 1/2 t-cinnamon

Wash, peel and core the apples. Add water and cook slowly in a covered utensil until tender. Remove cover, add the sugar and cook two minutes. Sprinkle cinnamon on the top.

CHAPTER XII

BETTINA'S FATHER TRIES HER COOKING

"SO she is about to try her cooking on me, is she?" said Bettina's father to Bob, as he sat down at the table. "Well, I'll admit that I have looked forward to this all day. But there was a time when I was a little more skeptical of Bettina's culinary skill. You know, when mother was in California two years ago last winter----"

"Now, Charlie, you know that all girls have to learn at some time or other," interrupted Bettina's mother. "And I believe that Bob has fared pretty well, considering that Bettina is just beginning to keep house----"

"I should say so!" said Bob, heartily. "Why, I'm getting fat! I was weighed to-day, and----"

"Don't say any more, Bob! We'll rent the house and take to boarding! If you get fat----"

"No boarding-houses for mine! Not after your cooking, Bettina! I had enough of boarding before I was married. Say--how long ago that does seem."

"Has the time dragged as much as that? Well, I'll change the subject. Dad, how do you like my Japanese garden? I think it's pretty, don't you?"

"I certainly do, my dear. What are those feathery things?"

"Why, don't you know that, Father? And when you were a boy, you worked on a farm one summer, too! There's a parsnip and a horse radish, and a beet. Then there are a few parsley seeds and grass seeds on a tiny sponge! And see the little shells and stones that Bob and I collected for it."

"Yes, we found that pink stone up the river on a picnic a year ago last May, before we were engaged, or were we engaged then, Bettina? And the purple one----"

"Oh, you needn't reminisce," Bettina interrupted hastily. "Eat your dinner."

_"Every little stone Has a meaning all its own, Every little shell---- But it wouldn't do to tell."_

"I composed that poem just this minute," said Bob, undisturbed.

"Will you help me get the dessert now, Robert? Are you ready, Mother? And Father?"

"Yes, indeed. A very fine dinner, Bettina. We never have steak fixed this way at home; do we, Mother? Can we try it some day soon?"

"I have something for dessert that you like, Dad. Guess what!"

"What is it? Oh, lemon pie! That is fine, I can tell you! But I know already that it won't be as good as your mother's! Still, we'll try it and see!"

That evening for dinner, Bettina served:

Devilled Steak New Potatoes in Cream Baking-powder Biscuits Jelly Cucumber and Radish Salad Lemon Pie Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Devilled Steak= (Four portions)

2 T-butter 1 T-onion 1-1/2 lb. flank steak 3/4 inch thick 2 T-flour 1 t-salt 1/2 t-pepper 1/8 t-paprika 1 t-mustard 1 T-vinegar 1 T-flour 2 C-water

Melt the butter in a frying-pan, slice the onion in it and sauté gently until golden brown in color. Remove the onion from the butter, cut the flank steak into pieces three by two inches. Dredge these lightly in one tablespoon flour and sauté in the butter until well browned. Remove the meat from the frying-pan; add the salt, pepper, paprika, mustard, vinegar and flour. Mix all together and add the water slowly. Replace the steak in the pan, cover closely and simmer one hour, or until the steak is tender. Serve on a warm platter and pour the gravy over it.

Baking Powder Biscuit= (Fifteen biscuits)

2 C-flour 4 t-baking powder 1/4 t-salt 3 T-lard 2/3 C-milk

Mix and sift the flour, baking powder and salt; cut in the lard with a knife until the consistency of cornmeal. Add the milk, mixing with a knife. Pat into a rectangular shape, one-half inch thick, on a floured board. Cut with a biscuit cutter one and one-half inches in diameter. Place side by side in a tin pan. Bake in a moderate oven fifteen minutes.

Cucumber and Radish Salad= (Four portions)

1 C-diced cucumbers 1/2 C-diced radishes 2 t-chopped onion 1 t-salt 1/4 t-pepper 4 T-salad dressing 4 lettuce leaves

Mix the cucumbers, radishes, onions, salt and pepper. Add salad dressing. Serve on lettuce leaves.