“He’s playing that he’s Colonel Crafts reading the Declaration,” Rose whispered to Anne, as they opened the front door, and entered the house. “Fred has made believe everything that has happened here in Boston for the last two years.”
“It’s warm weather for candy-making,” said Mrs. Freeman, as the family gathered at the supper table in the cool pleasant dining-room, “but Caroline is going to see her mother this evening, so you children can have the kitchen, and you will not have another opportunity for a long time to send Aunt Anne Rose any remembrance.”
The children all declared that it was not too warm for candy-making, and as soon as Caroline, a young woman who helped Mrs. Freeman and Rose with the household work, gave them permission Rose, Anne, Millicent and Frederick went into the kitchen. Rose opened a deep drawer in a chest which stood in one corner of the room.
“Look, Anne,” she said, and Anne peered in, exclaiming:
“Why, it’s filled with little boxes!”
“Yes,” said Rose, picking up one shaped like a heart; “stormy days, and sometimes in winter evenings, when I do not feel like knitting or sewing, I make boxes out of heavy paper or cardboard, and cover them with any bits of pretty paper or cloth that I can get. Frederick helps me. He can make even better ones than I can, and Millicent helps too,” and she smiled down at the little sister who stood close beside Anne.
“Let’s send Aunt Anne Rose the heart-shaped box,” said Anne.
“And fill it with heart-shaped taffy,” added Frederick, running toward a shelf filled with pans and kettles of various shapes and sizes, and taking down a box. “See, we have little shapes for candy,” and he opened the box and took out some tiny heart-shaped pans, and dishes shaped in rounds and stars and crescents.
“My!” exclaimed Anne, “and can you make the candies in these?”
“No!” and Frederick’s voice was a little scornful. “We have to boil it in a kettle, of course; then we grease the inside of these little pans with butter and turn the candy into them, and when it cools we tip them out, and there they are. Fine as any you can buy, aren’t they, Rose?”