wo ounces of cocoa and one quart of boiling water. Boil
together for a half hour on the back of the stove, then add a quart of
milk and two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Boil for ten minutes and serve.

Everything on the table was enjoyed, and we girls had a very merry time.
After tea and before the brothers came, we arranged a plan for learning
to make bread. I forgot to speak of the strawberries, but good
strawberries and rich cream need no directions. A pretty way of serving
them for breakfast, or for people who prefer them without cream, is
simply to arrange the beautiful fruit unhulled on a cut glass dish, and
dip each berry by its dainty stem into a little sparkling mound of
powdered sugar.

As for our games, our talk, our royally good time, girls will understand
this without my describing it. As Veva said, you can't put the soul of a
good time down on the club's record book, and I find I can't put it down
here in black and white. But when we said good-night, each girl felt
perfectly satisfied with the day, and the brothers pleaded for many
more such evenings.

CHAPTER III.

A FAIR WHITE LOAF.

"It's very well," said Miss Clem Downing, Marjorie's sister, "for you
little housekeepers to make cakes and creams; anybody can do that; but
you'll never be housekeepers in earnest, little or big, my dears, till
you can make good eatable bread."

"Bread," said Mr. Pierce to Amy, "is the crowning test of housewifery. A
lady is a loaf-giver, don't you know?"

"When Jeanie shall present me with a perfect loaf of bread, I'll present
her with a five-dollar gold piece," said Jeanie's father.

"I don't want Veva meddling in the kitchen," observed Mrs. Fay, with
emphasis. "The maids are vexatious enough, and the cook cross enough as
it is. If ever Veva learns breadmaking, it must be outside of this
house."

"Don't bother me, daughter," said Mrs. Partridge, looking up from the
cup she was painting. "It will be time for you to learn breadmaking when
the bakers shut their shops."

As for the writer of this story, her mother's way had been to teach her
breadmaking when she was just tall enough to have a tiny moulding-board
on a chair, but Milly did not feel qualified to take hold of a regular
cooking class. It was the same with Linda Curtis. Grandmamma suggested
our having a teacher, and paying her for her trouble.

"Miss Muffet?" said Veva.

"Miss Muffet," we all exclaimed.

"And then," said Jeanie, "our money will