CHAPTER XXI
THE PICNIC
"CAN'T guess where I'm going to-day," laughed Mary Frances, coming into the kitchen next morning.
"To the circus?" guessed Sauce Pan.
Mary Frances shook her head.
"Not to-day."
"To the fair?" guessed Coffee Pot.
"No!"
"To the Zo-ol-og-ic-al Garden," guessed Sauce Pan, again, beginning to recite:
"'The Pan-Cans went to the Zoo,
It long had been their wish
To see the Baking Panimals
With the wildly Chafing Dish.'"
"Wrong!" laughed Mary Frances. "All wrong!—Perhaps this will help you guess"—opening the cook book.
No. 28.—Stuffed Eggs.
1. Hard-boil eggs.
2. Drop into cold water. Remove shells.
3. Cut each in half lengthwise.
4. Turn out yolks into a bowl.
5. Carefully place whites together in pairs.
6. Mash yolks with back of a spoon.
7. For every 6 yolks, put into the bowl
| 1 tablespoon olive oil or melted butter |
| ½ teaspoon mustard (the kind prepared for table) |
| ½ teaspoon salt |
| dash cayenne pepper |
8. Rub these together thoroughly with the yolks.
9. Make little balls of this paste, the size of the yolks.
10. Fit one ball into each pair whites.
Note.—If used for table, serve with White Sauce poured around them. If used for picnic, wrap waxed paper around each until needed.
"It's a picnic! It's a picnic!" cried the Kitchen People.
"Yes!" explained Mary Frances, "that's it! Aunt Maria is giving me a picnic to 'celebrate my ambition,' she says—whatever that means. Anyhow, Father's coming. He's going to make up for the lunch he couldn't come to. I'm so happy!"
"So'm I! Goody! Goody! I'm all ready!"
Mary Frances turned.
"If it isn't Basket!" she cried. "I had no idea you——"
"That I wanted to go?" asked Basket proudly. "My family are the most important 'picnickers' at any picnic! We always go!"
"Well, to be sure!" exclaimed Mary Frances. "Here, wait—these eggs will be ready in a minute!"
"Tuck the napkin in carefully, please," said Basket. "I won't spill them out. Anything else?"
"No," said Mary Frances. "Aunt Maria said I could bring just one thing—and to surprise everybody; so I have not told anyone what I am going to bring. I wonder if——"
But her thought was cut short by Coffee Pot's crying excitedly: "I want to go! I want to go! I—want—to—go! go! go! go! I want to go—go—go—go!—go—go!"
"Oh, you can't go!" said Sauce Pan. "Why—you!—you'd—you—you'd——"
"That will do," said Mary Frances. "I'll take you, Coffee Pot. Maybe Aunt Maria's little coffee pot won't be large enough for all of the picnic. Eleanor and Bob are going with us!"
Coffee Pot looked tri-umph-ant-ly at Sauce Pan, but seemed too happy to say anything.
"Good-bye, Kitchen People," said Mary Frances, "I wish I could take you all."
"Good-bye," cried the Kitchen People; "hope you'll have a lovely time!"
"I'd be scared," said Sauce Pan, glancing at Coffee Pot. "Who knows what's in the woods?" And as Mary Frances closed the door, he was singing:
"'If polar bears were everywheres,
And leopards came to tea,
And fearful bats and gnawing gnats
All came to eat with me,
And giant snakes ate all the cakes,
What a "picnic" that would be!'"
"Boo!!!"
