remember."

"We will write it down," said Margaret. "I have written down all the
recipes you have given us, so far, in a copy-book, and I am going to
keep them as long as I live."

"A very good plan. Listen then. Put a quarter of a pound of flour, with
a pinch of salt, into a bowl, pour in two table-spoonfuls of salad-oil,
stir a little of the flour with this, and add a gill (which is a quarter
of a pint, you know) of tepid water. Beat the batter till it is quite
smooth and no lumps remain. Thus much cook has done for us."

"Tepid water is water that is not hot enough to burn, is it not, ma'am?"
said Mary, inquiringly.

"That is not at all a safe rule to lay down. I should say, tepid water
is made by mixing two parts of cold with one part boiling water."

"Shall I strain off and beat the whites of the eggs, mother?" said
Margaret; "I can do that, you know."

"Yes, dear. You will need the whites of two eggs, and they must be
beaten till very stiff. When they are ready you mix them lightly into
the batter. Meantime Mary can peel the apples. Peel the skin off very
thinly, Mary, and stamp out the core with the little instrument called
the apple-corer. You see, it does the business very quickly. If we had
no apple-corer, we should either have to scoop out the core with the
point of a knife, when we should be in danger of cutting our fingers, or
we should have to take it from the slices separately. These apples must
be cut in slices across the core, you understand, before we can make the
fritters."

"How thick must the slices be, please, ma'am?" said Mary.

"Not thick at all. They must be as thin as you can cut them to keep them
whole. You will do very well if you can cut them all evenly, thin as a
shilling. Do you see that we wish to cook the apple inside, as well as
the batter outside it, and the thinner it is the more quickly it will
cook?"

Very busily Mary worked, but Margaret had beaten her egg-whites, and
stirred them in, long before she had finished.

"May I help Mary, mother?" then said Margaret, who did not enjoy
waiting.

"Yes, dear; you can prepare one apple, if you like. Before doing so,
however, put the fat on the fire. It was strained into a fresh saucepan
to be ready for us. It will take a little time to boil; but we must use
it the moment it boils. Remember that every minute, I might say every
second, that fat remains on the fire after it boils, and without being
used, it is spoiling."

"You