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Mary Frances Cook Book

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<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> <div class='chaptertitle'>MARY FRANCES' MOTHER</div> <div class='cap'>MARY FRANCES pushed open the door of her mother's room very softly.</div> <div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/i027a.jpg" width-obs="120" height-obs="318" alt=""What has my little girl there?"" title="" /></div> <p>"What has my little girl there?" asked her mother.</p> <p>"Oh, are you awake, Mother? It's a s'prise for you," and she carried the tray over to the bed.</p> <p>Her mother carefully lifted the lid of the dish.</p> <p>"Milk Toast! the only thing I could eat! why—who made it?"</p> <p>"If it hadn't been for Toaster, it couldn't have been made," said Mary Frances.</p> <p>Her mother looked at the little girl in surprise.</p> <p>"I mean," she added, "that Toaster really did it—he showed me how——"</p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i027b.jpg" width-obs="442" height-obs="202" alt=""It's a s'prise for you."" title="" /></div> <div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/i028a.jpg" width-obs="109" height-obs="261" alt=""What do you think?"" title="" /></div> <p>"Oh!" laughed her mother, as she lifted a slice of toast out on a saucer. "Well, dear, anyway I want you to have some toast with Mother"—and she handed the saucer to Mary Frances, who said she would much rather watch her mother eat it than to have some<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</SPAN></span> herself; but, after her first taste, she found how hungry she was.</p> <p>"It's the best toast I ever ate," said her mother, "and Mary Frances, dear, I feel much better already."</p> <p>She would have said more had not Mary Frances' brother bounded up the stairs two steps at a time with,——</p> <p>"What do you think! I met Father downtown, and he says Aunt Maria's coming over to keep house for us. In the daytime, she must be at home; but she'll come over to get breakfast for us, and we'll go there for our dinners—and Father says Mother is going to the seashore to have a 'perfect rest' until she's well. Anyhow, I'm glad we won't starve. I wish Sis knew how to cook!" and he teasingly pulled one of Mary Frances' curls.</p> <p>"Hush, Brother!" said the mother, "you should have been here to see the lovely Milk Toast Sister just brought me. It was the best I ever ate—and she made it all herself."</p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i028b.jpg" width-obs="387" height-obs="203" alt=""I must warn the Kitchen People."" title="" /></div> <p>"Almost!" said Mary Frances.</p> <p>"Oh, yes," said her mother, "the dear little girlie wants Toaster to get part of the praise."</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/i029a.jpg" width-obs="105" height-obs="292" alt="Flowers" title="" /></div> <p>"Ha, ha!" laughed Brother, and Mary Frances, somehow, couldn't explain about the Kitchen Folks.</p> <p>Instead, "When does Aunt Maria come?" she asked. "Does she come to-night?"</p> <p>"She's coming right over," answered her brother.</p> <p>"Oh, oh!" thought Mary Frances, "I must warn the Kitchen People."</p> <p>"Brother," she began, nervously, "you stay with Mother—I want to take these things down."</p> <p>But Brother was already sitting quietly near Mother, and Mary Frances hurried softly downstairs.</p> <p>"The poor dears! The poor dears!" she kept whispering all the way down.</p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i029b.jpg" width-obs="501" height-obs="394" alt=""Milk Toast! the only think I could eat! why—who made it?"" title="" /></div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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