to find gingerbread, for instance, all you
have to do is to turn to G; and when you want--"

"Cake," interrupted Brownie, "you turn to K."

Everybody laughed then, but in a minute Jack said soberly: "If you don't
mind, Mother, I think I'll use mine for school. You see, boys don't
cook."

"It seems to me I've heard that before," said Father Blair, nodding at
him. "But you just tuck that book away in your bureau drawer and keep
it, because I've an idea you may want it yet for a cook-book."

Jack shook his head energetically, but as Norah just then brought in a
fresh plate of popovers, he was too busy to say anything more.

That afternoon, the girls began their books by copying very neatly the
receipts they had already used: Brownies, Christmas Cakes, Icing,
Christmas Elves, Gingerbread Men, Oatmeal Macaroons, Pop-corn Balls, and
Tartlets all went in, each under its own initial. Then they said they
wanted some more receipts right away, because these looked so lonely.

"Very well," said their mother; "but first we will have a talk, because
I have a bright idea."

Now it happened that one of the particularly nice things about the Blair
family was that they owned a little bit of a house not many miles from
town, right in the midst of a pine grove. A farmer lived quite close by,
but the trees hid his house from sight; and the trolley-cars ran just
around the corner, but they could not be seen either; so when the family
went there for a day or two, or a week or two, it was just as though
they were a long, long distance from everybody in the world. They called
this little place the House in the Woods, and Brownie Blair often
pretended it was the one in the fairy book, and that Goldilocks might
come in at any moment to eat a bowl of porridge with the three Blairs,
instead of the three bears.

"You see," Mother Blair went on, "the snow is still so fresh and lovely,
and the sleighing so good, and the full moon is still coming up so very
early, that I thought--"

"Oh, I know!" Jack shouted. "A sleighing party!"

"Yes," said his mother; "to the House in the Woods for supper. Won't
that be fun? And you can cook the supper. Only, if you invite seven boys
and girls to go with you, we must have plenty of things for them to eat;
and of course you will want to cook them all yourselves."

"Of course," Mildred said decidedly. "What shall we have for the
supper?"

"Oh, have cheese dreams!" Jack begged. "The fellows think they're