"Tartlets," called Mother Blair from upstairs. And when Brownie ran up for it she gave her this receipt:
TARTLETS
Flour the pastry board; roll out some pie-crust very thin, and press it into little scalloped tins; prick holes in the bottom to let the air in. Cut off the edges smoothly, and bake till light brown. Just before you need them fill the shells with jelly.
The very moment when the tarts disappeared in the pantry, Jack came up with his pans of pop-corn.
"Real cooking is just for girls," he said, with his mouth full of a stolen macaroon. "It's all right for boys to make pop-corn balls, though. Only how do you do it?" His mother told him to wash his hands well, and then gave him this rule:
POP-CORN BALLS
| 1 | cup of molasses. |
| ½ | cup of sugar. |
| 2 | teaspoonfuls of vinegar. |
| ½ | teaspoonful of soda. |
| 2 | teaspoonfuls of butter. |
Boil fifteen minutes, stirring all the time. Pour a little over a pan of corn, and take up in your hands all that sticks together, and roll it into a ball. Keep the candy hot on the back of the stove, and pour on more till it is all done.
This made a great dishful of lovely balls, and they set them away in a cold place; and then Norah told them they must run out of the kitchen, because she wanted to get luncheon ready.
After lunch, Jack had to go and shovel out paths again, because those he had made had all disappeared. Mildred and Brownie dressed a tiny doll for a cousin they were afraid might not have quite as many as she would want, and when that was done, they said they wanted to cook some more.