am
splashed and splashed for quite a long time; but still the butter did
not come.

"Ho!" said Kat. "You're nothing but a boy. Of course you don't know how
to churn. Let me try." And she took her turn.

Dash! Splash! Splash, dash! She worked away; and very soon, around the
dasher, there was a ring of little specks of butter.

"Come, butter, come! Come, butter, come!
Some for a honey cake, and some for a bun,"

she sang in time to the dasher; and truly, when Vrouw Vedder opened the
churn, there was a large cake of yellow butter!

Vrouw Vedder took out the butter and worked it into a nice roll. Then
she gave each of the Twins a cup of buttermilk to drink.

While the Twins drank the buttermilk, their mother washed the churn and
put it away. When she was all through, it was still quite early in the
morning, because they had gotten up with the sun.

"Now we must clean the house," she said.

So she got out her scrubbing-brushes, and mops, and pails, and dusters,
and began.

First she shook out the pillows of the best bed, that nobody ever slept
in, and pushed back the curtains so that the embroidered coverlet could
be seen. Then she put the other beds in order and drew the curtains in
front of them.

She dusted the linen press and left it open just a little, so that her
beautiful rolls of white linen, tied with ribbons, would show. Kat
dusted the chairs, and Kit carried the big brass jugs outside the
kitchen door to be polished.

Then they all three rubbed and scoured and polished them until they
shone like the sun.

"Now it is time to cook the dinner," said Vrouw Vedder. "We will have
pork and potatoes and some cabbage. Kit, run to the garden and bring a
cabbage; and Kat, you may get the fire ready to cook it, when Kit
brings it in."

Kat went to the stove--but it was such a funny stove! It wasn't a stove
at all, really.

There was a sort of table built up against the chimney. It was all
covered with pretty blue tiles, with pictures of boats on them. Over
this table, there was a shelf, like a mantel shelf. There were plates
on it, and from the bottom of the shelf hung some chains with hooks on
them. The coals were right out on the little table.

Kat took the bellows and--puff, puff, puff!--made the coals burn
brighter. She peeped in the kettle to see that there was water in it.
Then she put some more charcoal on the fire.

Kit brought in the cabbage, and Vrouw Vedder cut it up and put it into