[Ill.u.s.tration: "Roly-poly, roly-poly, to and fro."]

"Oh, yes, of course," laughed Mary Frances; "Cooking School."

"Certainly, child," laughed Aunty Rolling Pin. "To what other school could you go to learn about me?"

"That's beautiful poetry," said Mary Frances.

"I think so," smiled Aunty Rolling Pin; "I made it up myself. It's so _floury_, you know," blowing the white dust in the air.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Tee-hee," giggled Mary Frances.]

"Tee-hee," giggled Mary Frances.

Aunty Rolling Pin looked offended.

"Excuse me," said Mary Frances, "you mean 'flowery.'"

"I mean what I say," said Aunty Rolling Pin; "isn't that what I said?"

As it certainly was what she said, and Mary Frances didn't like to explain, she hastily turned to her work.

It didn't take long to cut the biscuits, as she had often helped her mother in baking. She knew how to dip the cutter each time into flour, that the dough might not stick. She used the large thimble she had brought down from the sewing room in the same way as she had used the biscuit cutter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "It didn't take long to cut the biscuits."]

"Aren't they too sweet!" she cried delightedly, as she laid the tiny biscuits side by side, but not touching, in the little baking pan. With the rest of the dough, she had made three larger ones. "One for each of the family," she said, slipping them with the Thimble Biscuits into the oven.

"Let me see what's next. Oh, yes, the cocoa. I do declare, it's little Sauce Pan's turn again. No wonder he's puffed up," she thought.

"Strange, he hasn't said a word. I'm 'most sure I have to use Sauce Pan.

Perhaps he doesn't understand. I'll read aloud:

NO. 18.--COCOA.

For each cup:

1 tablespoon cocoa 1 tablespoon sugar cup boiling water cup milk

1. Heat milk.

2. Mix cocoa and sugar.

3. Pour boiling water on them gradually, making a smooth paste.

4. Add the milk, and cook a half minute.

5. Beat with an egg beater.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Oh, yes, the cocoa."]

Silence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Don't bother me."]

"Sauce Pan!" one of the Kitchen People near him whispered loudly, "Sauce Pan! Why don't you speak?"

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Don't bother me. I'm asleep," muttered Sauce Pan drowsily, "sound asleep!"

Mary Frances gasped.

"What 'n awful story!" exclaimed the one who had first spoken.

"You're not very polite to question my word to my very face," Sauce Pan retorted angrily. "Now, if someone else had told you, that would have been different; then you'd had some excuse."

"Come," thought Mary Frances, "that's too silly! I'll put an end to this. I don't need any help with this simple recipe."

Seizing Sauce Pan quite carelessly, she quickly made the cocoa.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mary Frances carried all her dolls to the window seat in her room.]

CHAPTER XVI

THE DOLLS' KITCHEN PARTY

"NOW, everything is ready," she said, glancing carefully at the table she had set with her little dishes; "I'll go up and bring the dolls.

Wait a minute, Mary Frances," she added after a moment's pause. "Let's see if everything is ready. There's

Thimble Biscuits Jam Cocoa

"Better look in the oven!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Better look in the oven!"]

"Oh, my, I'm glad you 'thought me,' Aunty Rolling Pin," cried Mary Frances, opening the oven door.

"Oh, dear me! Most of the Thimble Biscuits are burnt up and the big ones are just done, I guess!"

"The thicker things are, the 'slower' the oven, child. The thinner, the hotter the oven----"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Oh, dear me!"]