“Huh! That’s why it pays to cook and bake at home, isn’t it?” said Norma.
“Yes, but even then, Norma, I found out that you have to know what you are buying or you get a counterfeit extract or baking powder, that is very injurious to eat. If one does not know this deception, one pays for the real thing and doesn’t get it.”
“I think someone ought to put a stop to such things!” was Norma’s amazed rejoinder to Belle’s disclosures.
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you, but the food adulterers go right on their merry way, coining money out of their poor imitation articles, and the ignorant public go right on buying what they believe to be pure goods. One really has to know all sorts of things these days to keep ahead of the tricksters.”
“Well, Belle, I guess the girl scout teachings and work will turn out housekeepers who can get ahead of any of these clever counterfeiters, eh?” said a voice just then, as Mrs. James came in to the kitchen to see how the cake was getting on.
The need of Norma’s assistance was soon over, for the cakes were poured into gem pans and quickly shoved into the oven to bake. Then Mrs. James told the girls that she had seen a tenant move in to one of Norma’s bird-flats.
“Oh where—when?” cried Norma, rushing to the back door in order to look out.
“A bluebird selected the flat facing the field and I saw them both carrying material for a nest. Even the rain had no dampening effect on their ambition to settle down in your cheese box apartment,” laughed Mrs. James.
The other girls who were in the cellar heard the excited voice of Norma as she talked about her new tenant, and all three dropped the paddle and ran upstairs to watch the bird nest building.
“Hey, dere! You’se can’t stop churnin’ like dat, once you starts it goin’!” shouted Rachel, catching hold of two of the girls just in time to prevent their escape to the back stoop.