"I'd rather learn that there is something to eat somewhere," said Leicester; "I'm simply starving. What's the use of three sisters if they can't get a fellow some supper?"
"That's so," agreed Dorothy; "and we all must go right to work. You can't help with this part, Leicester. You skip away now, your turn will come later. Now girls," she went on, as Leicester vanished, not without the usual accompaniment of an ear-splitting yell, "we're going to have an awful lot of fun; and we can make just as much noise and racket as we please; but all the same there's a lot of work to be done, and we're going to do it, and do it properly. It's a great deal easier if we have system and method, and so we'll divide up the work and each of us must do our own part, and do it thoroughly and promptly."
"Hear, hear!" cried Lilian, who adored her older sister, and was more than willing to obey her commands.
"What can I do?" screamed Fairy, who was dancing round and round the kitchen, perching now on the window-seat, now on the table, and now on the back or arm of the old settle.
"We must each have our definite work," went on Dorothy, who was herself sitting on the back of a chair with her feet on the wooden seat. "Tessie will have her share, but she can't do everything. So there's plenty for us to do. Grandma is not to do a thing, that's settled. If four women and a man can't take care of one dear old lady, it's high time they learned how."
As the youngest of the four "women" was just then clambering up the cupboard shelves, and singing lustily at the top of her voice, some people might have thought that the dear old lady in question had an uncertain outlook. But Dorothy was entirely undisturbed by the attitudes of her audience, and continued her discourse.
"I shall do the cooking,—that is, most of it. I'm a born cook, and I love it; besides I want to learn, and so I'm going to try all sorts of dishes, and you children will have to eat them,—good or bad."
"I like to make cake and fancy desserts," said Lilian.
"All right, you can make them. And I'll make croquettes and omelets, and all sorts of lovely things, and Tessie can look after the boiling of the potatoes and vegetables, and plain things like that. You haven't had much experience in cooking, have you, Tessie?"
"No, Miss Dorothy; but I'm glad to learn, and I'll do just whatever you tell me."