ted them to get. She said she was out of flour and granulated sugar,
and would want raisins and coffee and tea, beside a vegetable for dinner
and some lettuce and meat. They planned the meals together, and decided
on having a dessert of apple-tart, made with apples and cream, and these
were added to the list Margaret wrote down so nothing would be
forgotten; then they set out.

They stopped at the grocery first, and Margaret was told to order a
seven-pound bag of sugar. While the clerk was getting it the aunt
explained that this was a better way to buy it than to get it loose, as
then it would be sent home in a paper bag, which might break and spill
it; then, too, the nice cotton bag in which it would come home would be
just the thing to strain jelly through. The flour was also ordered in a
bag, this time a large one.

"Some things we buy in small quantities because there is danger of
waste in the kitchen if there is an unlimited supply at hand. But flour
is needed every day, and never wasted, so we buy a good deal of that at
a time. If we had a very large family we would buy a whole barrel at
once, and so save a little money; as it is, the big bag does very well
for us. Now for coffee; tell the clerk to give you his very best Java
and Mocha mixed, in a tin can. We will take it browned, but not ground."

"I thought Bridget always browned the coffee," said Margaret, who
remembered the delicious smell which often had filled the house when the
coffee came from the oven.

"So she did," her aunt explained, "until we found she would sometimes
burn just a few grains each time, which made the whole taste burned. Now
we buy it in a can, only a pound or two at a time, and of a man who has
just had it browned for him. We keep the tin closely shut always so the
odor cannot escape, and grind each morning only as much as we need, and
have this heated very hot just before the water is added, and that
gives it the same fresh odor you remember. It is the easiest way to
manage, though, of course, freshly roasted coffee is the best of all.
But remember always to get a good quality in buying, for poor coffee is
not fit to drink. Order the tea, when the clerk is ready, and get that
also in a package, because it is cleaner and fresher that way. You can
pay anything you like for tea, from thirty cents a pound to about two
dollars, but your mother gets a black tea without a bit of green mixed
in it for from sixty to eighty cents, and buys i