“You ought to see the kitchen at Frieda’s house,” said Hannah, as she made a fine suds in the rinsing pan and poured it over the glasses. “What did you think of our black stoves and things, Frieda?”
“I saw one in the American church first, you know.”
Hannah smiled at the diplomatic evasion. “You are the nicest thing I ever saw, Frieda. You don’t say anything unfavorable of anything any more. When I was at your house I kept criticising the whole country. But you are so polite,–as polite as Karl!”
Frieda looked pleased, but she only said sedately: “We were children when you were in Berlin, Hannah. Now it is proper for us to act like grown-ups.”
“You were awfully grown-up in that pillow fight last night!”
Instantly the mask of primness vanished from Frieda’s face, and roguish twinkles showed themselves.
“Don’t let me ever catch you turning prig, Frieda Lange,” advised Hannah. “And now don’t ask me what a prig is, for I don’t know in German, and there’s no way here to find out. What else are you going to have for eats, Catherine?”
Catherine shuddered. “I suppose you’d think I was a prig if I told you how I hate that word 256 ‘eats,’ so I won’t tell you! The chief thing to-night is the birthday cake, of course. And Inga is going to make grape-fruit sherbet. It’s so nice with a little tang of tartness to it, you know. And we’ll have olive sandwiches with the salad and coffee. You can all help with those!”
“It’s such fun to help,” said Alice. “At home there are so many of us, and no maid at all, you know, and we have awfully jolly times, really. Mother is cook and she has a different scullery-maid for each meal. And the rest of us divide up the rooms, and so on. The boys are great workers, too. Even little Jack brings in kindlings and wipes the silver. He plays the knives are men, and the forks their wives and the spoons the little children.”
“O, so did I, always,” cried Catherine. “And it used to worry me dreadfully not to know positively that the proper couples were together. Once I tied them all neatly with different colored silks, but Mother didn’t approve. Through with the nuts so soon, Frieda? Then you can begin on the sandwiches.”