CHAPTER XII.
They Visit the Kitchen.
VERY cautiously they set forth, Peter Pan conducting, while Bedelia brought up the rear in order to safeguard the small fry from any possible attack in either direction.
Silently the little procession crept from the nursery and hopping and sliding down the stairs swiftly advanced upon the lower regions. In the kitchen hall they broke ranks.
The kitchen was a big, bright room, beautifully kept and as clean as wax. Indeed, cook was in the habit of saying that you could eat off the floor, which was undoubtedly true provided you did not prefer a table and chair.
Everything fairly shone with cleanliness and was as bright as sapolio and elbow grease could make it.
A great pan of bread had been put to rise on a table near the range and this the hungry bears sampled first, upsetting the pan and pushing their paws and noses into the dough in their impatience to taste it. However, they did not like it at all, as it was much too raw and sticky, and not at all unlike the library paste on Sally’s school room desk, which Peter Pan had once upset in order to taste it and from which he had retired in disgust. So they left it strewn all about the newly scrubbed floor, and started on a voyage of discovery in the pantries. Here indeed were goodies galore, plump pies and a luscious jelly cake glistening with white frosting; shining glasses of jelly and jam, jars upon jars of preserves, pickles and catsup of every description.
