Betsy fumbled for a match, checked to see that the bathroom shade was down, and then lighted a candle. Keeping the flame shaded carefully with her hands, she dripped some tallow in the bottom of the bathtub and stuck the candle in the thickening puddle.
“Success!” she breathed as she withdrew her hands and the candle stood alone.
“What do we eat?” Sue asked. “I’m starving.”
“No!” Mimi teased and almost giggled out.
“Sh-sh.” Betsy warned. She had been to too many such after-lights-out parties. Keeping quiet was rule one.
“Alas the cupboard is bare,” Mimi wailed, as she stepped down from the side of the tub where she had climbed to search the high shelf.
“The treasure chest is empty, too,” Betsy lamented.
“We do have some white sugar and some cocoa in the sitting room,” Chloe remembered.
“My kingdom, not for a horse, but for a cow! We need only butter and milk to have fudge.” Sue had them all giggling now. “Let’s make hot chocolate—sugar, cocoa, water—not rich, but I could drink ink with sugar in it.”
“Far be it from me to be a kill-joy, but, we have no canned heat.” Betsy sounded hopeless. “Why did we ever bring up food at all? I was hungry but not ravenous until we talked about fudge. If we go to bed now, and there seems nothing left to do, I’ll be delirious with visions of fudge and sugar plums dancing through my head. Oh me, oh my. My mother had such hungry children!”