A Little Preserving Book for a Little Girl. Mrs. Amy Harlow Waterman
href="#ulink_7bc8bd89-a45b-5cdd-aaf2-5d612b7a789f">Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR CANNING FRUITS
Blueberries Currants Loganberries Raspberries
CHAPTER IX THE GOVERNMENT WAY OF PRESERVING EGGS
CHAPTER I
MARMALADES
There were two long and very wide shelves, besides a good-sized bench that had a shelf underneath, in mother's preserve closet. Before these stood two little girls, Jessie May and Adelaide.
Jessie May was Adelaide's most intimate friend, who had been away the whole summer long. To be sure, they had written to one another regularly, and in each letter that Adelaide sent to Jessie May she hinted at a wonderful secret. Now they were together again, the one longing to hear and the other eager to tell the wonderful secret.
"You see," said Adelaide, pointing proudly to the bench and its shelf underneath, "this is all my work, the other (indicating the two long and very wide shelves) is mother's."
Jessie May gasped, for the top of the bench and the underneath shelf had every spare inch covered with jars of jams, jellies, preserves, pickles, vegetables, etc.
"Why, Adelaide! You couldn't—I mean, how could you?" hastily corrected Jessie May, for she wouldn't for the world have Adelaide think she doubted her word.
"Well," said Adelaide, "let's go upstairs and I'll tell you how it all happened."
When the two little girls were comfortably seated on the back porch the great secret was disclosed, and mother, busy in the kitchen, smiled to herself at their very evident enjoyment. Jessie May was all interest, and you may be sure that Adelaide did not neglect even the smallest detail. She poured out her very soul. In fact, mother learned a good many things that morning about her small daughter's thoughts that she had hardly realized before, until she overheard them being laid bare to Jessie May.
Of course, Adelaide always told mother everything, but it was usually the result of her thoughts, and not the process of thinking. You see, Adelaide had been trained to think for herself, so in one way it was not surprising to hear her tell Jessie May that for two or three years she had been longing to help "preserve."
She