She had her little cook book, and Mother's last letter under her pillow.
"Billy writes your lunches are 'scrumptious,'" ran her mother's letter. "I cannot tell how much comfort my little girl is to me."
"I've 'most a mind to tell Mother about the cook book," thought Mary Frances, "but won't she open her eyes when I tell her I've made everything--if I can keep the secret! I do hope I wake up in time. Father said he'd call me to breakfast, when he said "Good-night," but I want to slip down, and have everything ready when he comes."
So she fell asleep, and dreamed she made an Angel Cake as big as a mountain, and that Jubey stole it, and fed all the hungry cats in the World.
[Illustration: Jubey fed all the hungry cats in the world.]
She had fixed the curtain so that the first sunlight would fall on her face, and it seemed only a breath of time until she felt it call her.
"I'll get down before the Kitchen Folks are awake," she whispered.
She carried her little shoes in her hand and stole softly downstairs, stopping in the dining-room to put them on.
"Nonsense, you!" she recognized the voice of Tea Kettle.
"Just wait till I read it out of my little book," mimicked a new voice.
"For shame, you saucy Pan!" exclaimed Big Iron Pot.
Mary Frances peeped into the kitchen. In the middle of the floor stood little Sauce Pan, pretending to read out of a book:
"'How to Make Potato Pie Out of Sauer-kraut.'"
"1. Fill eight potatoes with Sauer-kraut, and peel them.
[Illustration: To Make Potato Pie Out of Sauer-kraut.]
[Illustration: "For shame, you saucy Pan!"]
"3. Bake the parings well, and serve very hot on ice."
How Sauce Pan ran, and jumped up to his place on the rack!
He looked so shamefaced when Mary Frances went in, that she hadn't the heart to scold him.
He pretended to be asleep. Then she took him by the arm and shook him.
"Boiled Eggs!" she shouted. "Doesn't that mean you?"
"Yes, ma'am," he said meekly; "I'm such a 'sleepy-head!' Do you know," con-fi-den-ti-al-ly, "I often talk in my sleep." At this the Kitchen People grinned.
[Illustration: He pretended to be asleep.]
"Ahem!" said Mary Frances, "It's a dangerous habit. Sometimes people tell stories when they're awake, too," she added as she stepped out to get the milk.