nto it?"

"Will that be enough?" said Matilda, lifting her floury hand out of the
pan.

"_I_ want a piece," said the housekeeper; "so there had better go
another bowlful. And the minister--_he_ likes a bite of hot
gingerbread, when he can get it. So shake it in, dear. That will do.
Now, what are you going to put in it, Tilly, besides flour?"

"Why, _I_ don't know," said Matilda.

"Well, guess. What do you think goes into gingerbread?"

"Molasses?"

"Yes; but that goes one of the last things. Ain't you going to put no
shortening in?"

"Shortening? what is that?" said Matilda.

"Well, it's whatever you've got. Butter'll do, if it's nice and
sweet--like this is--or sweet drippings'll do, or a little sweet lard,
maybe. We'll take the butter to-day, for this is going to do you and me
credit. Now think--what else? Put the butter right there, in the
middle, and rub it into the flour with the flat of your hand, so. Rub
hard, dear; get the butter all in the flour, so you can't see it. What
is to go in next?"

"Spice? I think mamma puts spice."

"If you like it. What spice will you choose?"

"I don't know, Miss Redwood."

"Well, it'd be queer gingerbread without ginger, wouldn't it?"

"Oh yes. I forgot the ginger, to be sure. How much?"

"That's 'cordin' as you like it. _That_ won't hardly taste, dear;
'tain't just like red pepper; take a good cupful. Now just a little bit
of cloves!"

"And cinnamon?"

"It'll be spice gingerbread, sure enough," said the housekeeper. "And
salt, Tilly."

"Salt? Must salt go in?" said Matilda, who had got very eager now in
her work.

"Salt's univarsal," said Miss Redwood. "'Cept sweetmeats, it goes into
everything. That's what makes all the rest good. I never could see what
was the use o' salt, till one day the minister, he preached a sermon on
'Ye are the salt of the earth,' and ever since that it seems to kind o'
put me in mind. And then I asked Mr. Richmond if _everything_ meant
something."

"But what does that mean, that you said?" said Matilda. "Good people
don't make the rest of the world good."

"They give all the taste there is to it, though," said the housekeeper.
"And I asked that very question myself of the minister; and what do you
think he told me."

"What?"

"He said it was because the salt warn't of as good quality as it had
ought to be. And _that_ makes me think, too. But la! look at your
gingerbread standing still. Now see, dear here's a bowl o' butte