rooked," complained Hal.

"Oh, my dears! I think you each must have the Spring Fever!" laughed
Mother Blake. "Try and be nicer toward one another. Let me see now. How
would you like to help me bake a cake, Mab?"

"Oh, that will be fun!" and Mab jumped up from the porch, where she had
been sitting near her mother's rocking chair, and began to clap her hands.
"May I stir it myself, and put the dough in the pans?

"Yes, I think so."

"Pooh! That's no fun for me!" remarked Hal. "I want to have some fun,
too."

"You may clean out the chocolate or frosting dish--whichever kind of a
cake we make," offered Mab. "You always like to scrape out the chocolate
dish, Hal."

"Yes, I like that," he said, smiling a little.

"Well, you may have it all alone this time, if I make the cake," went on
Mab. Nearly always she and Hal shared this pleasure--that of scraping out,
with a knife or spoon, the chocolate or sugar icing dish from which Mother
Blake took the sweet stuff for the top and inside the layers of the cake.
"Come on, Hal!"

Hal was willing enough now, and soon he and his sister were in the
kitchen, helping Mother Blake with her cake-making. Though, to tell the
truth, Mab and Mrs. Blake did most of the work.

While the three were in the midst of their cake-making, into the kitchen
rushed a little poodle dog, whirling around, barking and trying to catch
his tail.

"Oh, Roly-Poly, where have you been?" cried Hal. "Did Daddy come home with
you?"

"Bow-wow!" barked Roly-Poly, which might mean "no" or "yes," just as you
happened to listen to his bark.

"Oh, don't get in my way, Roly!" called Mab as the little dog danced about
in front of her, while she was carrying a pan filled with cake dough
toward the oven. "Look out! Oh, there it goes."

Just what Mab had feared came to pass. She tripped over the poodle dog,
and, to save herself from falling, she had to drop the pan of cake dough.
Down it fell, right on Roly-Poly's back.

"Bow-wow-wow!" he barked and growled at the same time.

"Oh, look at him!" laughed Hal "He's a regular cake himself."

"Don't let him run through the house that way!" called Mother Blake.
"He'll get the carpets and furniture all dough. Get him, Hal!"

Hal made a grab for the little pet dog, and caught him by his tail. This
made Roly-Poly howl louder than ever, until Hal, not wishing to hurt his
pet, managed to get him in his arms. But of course this made Hal's waist
all covered with cake dou