Early one morning there was left at the door a miniature invitation, which announced that a picnic was to be held at the Doll Farm the next day. Janie ran into the doll house to ask if they would go, and found Dinah busy cooking for it. She had just finished the layer cakes, which had been baked in the lids of baking-powder cans. They were all iced, some with chocolate, others with plain white. A number of tiny square loaves of angel food and sponge cake looked so good that Janie longed to pocket one.
Dinah allowed her to cut out the fried cakes with a thimble, and when they were a golden brown, she rolled them in pulverized sugar until they looked like a heap of white marbles. Dinah then made a batch of cookies, which Janie cut also. Next came a lot of jelly tarts and apple turn-overs, so crisp they would undoubtedly melt in your mouth.
Last, but not least, she made dozens of the dearest little baking-powder biscuits, and when they were baked Janie opened and buttered them and put in pieces of dried beef, shaved very thin. They were delicious. Janie received one from Dinah, and longed to swallow a dozen.
Then Dinah boiled a number of eggs, for which Janie tied up packages of salt and pepper, as these are necessary for every picnic. She then helped to place the food on the pantry shelf, ready to pack in a hamper the next morning.
How tempting it looked! When they had squeezed lemons for lemonade and frozen the ice cream, they sat down to rest.
Dinah said it was to be a delightful picnic, given by the Queen to all the dolls and their mammas. Every little girl in the village was invited, and she did hope she had enough to eat!
Janie ran home to tell mamma about it, and to ask if she couldn’t make something for the lunch. Mamma thought for a moment.