Letting the candy boil, Dinah went about her kitchen work, while Flossie sat in a chair near the stove watching. Pretty soon the door bell rang, and Dinah went to answer it. Flossie stayed in the kitchen looking at the steaming pan of candy until she heard a voice calling to her from the yard.
"Flossie! Flossie! Come on out and play!"
It was Stella Janson, a little girl who lived next door.
"I can't come out right away, Stella," answered Flossie. "I'm making candy and I have to watch it. You sit down on the porch and when the candy is done I'll bring some out to you."
Flossie went to the door to tell this to the little girl, and then she saw that Stella had a new doll.
"Oh, isn't she pretty!" cried Flossie. "I must see her!"
Forgetting all about the candy boiling on the stove, Flossie went out on the porch. There she and Stella took turns holding the doll. All this while Dinah was at the front door. A peddler had rung the bell, and it took the colored cook some little time to tell him her mistress did not want to buy a new kind of piano polish.
All at once Dinah gave a cry and quickly closed the door.
"Sumfin's burnin'! Sumfin's burnin'!" she shouted as she hurried back to the kitchen.
At the same time Stella, who was out on the porch with Flossie, began to sniff the air.