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Page 26
"Oh, till it tastes right," said Aunt Abigail, carelessly. "Fix it to
suit yourself, and I guess the rest of us will like it. Take that big
spoon to stir it with."
Elizabeth Ann took off the lid and began stirring in sugar, a
teaspoonful at a time, but she soon saw that that made no impression.
She poured in a cupful, stirred it vigorously, and tasted it. Better,
but not quite enough. She put in a tablespoonful more and tasted it,
staring off into space under bended brows as she concentrated her
attention on the taste. It was quite a responsibility to prepare the
apple sauce for a family. It was ever so good, too. But maybe a LITTLE
more sugar. She put in a teaspoonful and decided it was just exactly
right!
"Done?" asked Aunt Abigail. "Take it off, then, and pour it out in that
big yellow bowl, and put it on the table in front of your place. You've
made it; you ought to serve it."
"It isn't done, is it?" asked Betsy. "That isn't all you do to make
apple sauce!"
"What else could you do?" asked Aunt Abigail.
"Well ... !" said Elizabeth Ann, very much surprised. "I didn't know it
was so easy to cook!"
"Easiest thing in the world," said Aunt Abigail gravely, with the merry
wrinkles around her merry old eyes all creased up with silent fun.
When Uncle Henry came in from the barn, with old Shep at his heels, and
Cousin Ann came down from upstairs, where her sewing-machine had been
humming like a big bee, they were both duly impressed when told that
Betsy had set the table and made the apple sauce. They pronounced it
very good apple sauce indeed, and each sent his saucer back to the
little girl for a second helping. She herself ate three saucerfuls. Her
own private opinion was that it was the very best apple sauce ever made.
After supper was over and the dishes washed and wiped, Betsy helping
with the putting-away, the four gathered around the big lamp on the
table with the red cover. Cousin Ann was making some buttonholes in the
shirt-waist she had constructed that afternoon, Aunt Abigail was darning
socks, and Uncle Henry was mending a piece of harness. Shep lay on the
couch and snored until he got so noisy they couldn't stand it, and
Cousin Ann poked him in the ribs and he woke up snorting and gurgling
and looking around very sheepishly. Every time this happened it made
Betsy laugh. She held Eleanor, who didn't snore at all, but made the
prettiest little tea-kettle-singing purr deep in her throat, and opened
and sheathed her needle-like claws in Betsy's dress.
"Well, how'd you get on at school?" asked Uncle Henry.
"I've got your desk," said Elizabeth Ann, looking at him curiously, at
his gray hair and wrinkled, weather-beaten face, and trying to think
what he must have looked like when he was a little boy like Ralph.
"So?" said Uncle Henry. "Well, let me tell you that's a mighty good
desk! Did you notice the deep groove in the top of it?"
Betsy nodded. She had wondered what that was used for.
"Well, that was the lead-pencil desk in the old days. When they couldn't
run down to the store to buy things, because there wasn't any store to
run to, how do you suppose they got their lead-pencils!" Elizabeth Ann
shook her head, incapable even of a guess. She had never thought before
but that lead-pencils grew in glass show-cases in stores.
"Well, sir," said Uncle Henry, "I'll tell you. They took a piece off the
lump of lead they made their bullets of, melted it over the fire in the
hearth down at the schoolhouse till it would run like water, and poured
it in that groove. When it cooled off, there was a long streak of solid
lead, about as big as one of our lead-pencils nowadays. They'd break
that up in shorter lengths, and there you'd have your lead-pencils, made
while you wait. Oh, I tell you in the old days folks knew how to take
care of themselves more than now."
"Why, weren't there any stores?" asked Elizabeth Ann. She could not
imagine living without buying things at stores.
"Where'd they get the things to put in a store in those days?" asked
Uncle Henry, argumentatively. "Every single thing had to be lugged clear
from Albany or from Connecticut on horseback."
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