"Sweets to make it sweet, and sours to make it sour, fire to heat, water to dissolve, and butter to make it run down our throats!" intoned Ivy like a witch making an incantation over her brew, while Alene, taking a large spoon, kept stirring the mixture until, exhausted, she was relieved by Hermione.
"Our motto is 'Keep Stirring,'" said Hermione; "but this takes so long a time to thicken, my arm's about broke."
"I never made sugar taffy, but molasses doesn't take any time hardly!" returned Laura.
After a consultation the mixture was emptied into a square, buttered pan and carried to the porch to cool.
When Laura went out presently to test it, she uttered a cry of dismay.
"It's gone back to sugar, girls!" she announced when the others came hastily to investigate.
Sure enough, instead of taffy ready for pulling, they found a sheet of sugar that could be broken into pieces.
"Put the pan back on the stove with some water, and let it melt, so we can try again," someone suggested.
They made surmises as to where the fault lay.
"Surely not in the stirring," cried Hermione, rubbing her elbow.