u touched it delicately with the point of her small forefinger.

"There!" she cried triumphantly. "It _crinkled_; it did, Dinah! The
jelly's come."

"Oh, how good!" added Bertha, applying her finger, not so gently, to the
hot surface, and then putting it into her mouth to cool it! "It's the
bestest jelly we ever made, Dinah."

Dinah chuckled again at this "we." But, after all, why not? Had not the
children watched her scald and squeeze the currants, and stir and skim?
Had not May wielded the big wooden spoon for at least three minutes? Had
not Lulu eaten a mouthful of skimmings on the sly? Were they not testing
the product now? The little ones had surely a right to say "we," and
Dinah accepted the partnership willingly. She lifted the preserving
kettle on to the table; and the junior (not silent!) members of the firm
mounted on their chairs, watched with intense interest as she dipped the
glasses in hot water, and filled each in turn with the clear red liquid.

"It's first-rate jell," she remarked. "Be hard in no time."

"Put a tiny, tiny bit in my doll's tumbler," said Bertha, producing a
minute vessel. "She likes jelly very much, my dolly does."

"Oh, isn't it nice to cook!" exclaimed Lulu, jumping up and down in her
chair! "Such fun! I wish Mamma'd always let us do it."

"What shall we make next?" asked May.

"Jumbles," responded the senior partner briefly.

"I like to make jumbles," cried May. "I may cut out all the
diamond-shaped ones, mayn't I, Di?"

"And I, all the round ones?"

"And I, the hearts?"

Dinah nodded. The children got down from their chairs, and ran to the
closet. They came back each with a tin cookie-pattern in her hand. Dinah
sifted flour and jumbled egg and sugar rapidly together, with that
precise carelessness which experience teaches. In a few minutes the
smooth sheet of dough lay glistening on the board, and the children
began cutting out the cakes; first a diamond, then a heart, then a
round, each in turn. As fast as the shapes were cut, Dinah laid them in
baking-tins, and carried them away to the oven. The work went busily on.
It was great fun. But, alas! in the very midst of it, interruption came.
The door opened, and a lady walked in,--a pretty lady in a beautiful
silk gown of many flounces. When she saw what the children were doing,
she frowned, and did not seem pleased.

"My dears," she said, "I was wondering where you were. It is quite time
that you should be dressed for t