The table was laid just as they had it at breakfast and luncheon and Sunday night supper, with pretty doilies, one for each person and several over for chafing-dishes and piles of plates and sandwiches. In the middle was a big bowl of bright colored autumn leaves mixed with chrysanthemums; and at each place was a dainty card with a picture of a witch riding a broomstick, and the name of the boy or girl who was to sit there. The table looked very pretty when it was all finished, with the glasses and silver and small napkins. Brownie did it almost all alone; she loved to get ready for company.
Then they got out their receipt books and began to put down the different things they were to make for supper. Even Jack, smiling sheepishly, consented to write down the chafing-dish rules. They might come in handy when he went to college, he said.
PIGS IN BLANKETS
| 20 | very large oysters. |
| 20 | slices of thin bacon. |
| A shake or two of pepper. |
Wrap each oyster in one slice of bacon after you have cut off the rind, and pin it with a tiny wooden toothpick. Heat the chafing dish very hot by putting the upper pan, the one with the handle, directly over the flame. Lay in four or five oysters and cook them till the bacon crisps and the edges of the oysters curl; then take them up and put into a hot covered dish while you cook more. Have ready some strips of toast and put the oysters on two or three of these on hot plates. Shake a little pepper over them, but no salt, as the bacon will salt them enough. If too much juice comes out in cooking, pour it off and so keep the pan dry.
The oysters were all made up into "pigs" in the afternoon, and put in the refrigerator; they looked so funny when they were done—just like tiny pigs, all asleep. But as Jack thought twenty oysters for ten people were not enough, they made fifty. Then Mildred was given her rule:
SPANISH EGGS
Mix in the chafing dish.
| 1 | tablespoonful of butter. |
| ½ | cup of gravy or strong soup. |
| 1 | onion, chopped fine. |
| ½ | cupful of thick tomato (canned). |
| 1 | green pepper, without the seeds, chopped fine. |
Cook this fifteen minutes, stirring so it will not burn; then put into it: