Gloriana rescued the frying pan, and the disappointed children gathered about the table, trying to look cheerful, but failing dismally.
"Don't want any 'tato," objected Janie, scorning the proffered dish. "Dingerbread!"
"Potato and beans first," insisted Tabitha.
"Dingerbread!" stubbornly repeated the child, so sleepy and cross that the weary older girl said no more, but slid a large slice of the savory cake into the little plate, and proceeded to help the other children in the same liberal manner. No one wanted beans and potato, but at the first mouthful of the tempting-looking gingerbread, everyone paused, looked inquiringly at her neighbor, chewed cautiously a time or two, and then eight hands went to eight pair of lips.
"I thought we stoned raisins for this cake," cried Susie, half indignantly.
"So you did," replied Gloriana, her face flushed crimson as she bent over her plate, intently examining her slice of cake.
"Oh, and put the stones in the cake! What did you do with the raisins?" demanded Inez.
Before Glory could frame a reply, or offer any excuse for the accident, Irene slid hurriedly off her chair, flew through the doorway and down the path toward town, but she was back in a moment, and in her hand she held a cup of raisins.
"Why, Irene McKittrick!" cried Mercedes, lifting her hands in horror. "What made you hide them?"
"I didn't hide them," the twin indignantly protested. "The cup was in my lap when Rosslyn called that Janie was lost, and I forgot to put it down when I ran out-doors. I remembered it by the time we reached our playhouse, so I set it down there and that's where I found it now."