Ethel Morton at Chautauqua Part 13

"Haven't they a maid?"

"They only have one here, and she has been d.i.c.ky's nurse until a little while ago, and he got so scared yesterday that he's almost sick to-day and keeps calling for Mary all the time. So Mrs. Morton is cooking for the family and she can't manage to do special things for her father."

"Do they want you to go there?"

"The kitchen is too small. That's why the grandmother or the older sister doesn't do it. They want me to make broths and jellies and things at home here and take them down there."

"You must do your very best, dear. It will be a splendid chance for you to take such a responsibility."

"The doctor says Mr. Emerson is to have chicken broth and toast at three o'clock, so I went to their house after the club and got a tray and a small bowl and some plates, and then stopped at the meat market on the way home, so the broth is started now."

She waved her hand toward the corner of the room where the low-turned flame of a gas plate was causing a soft simmering in a large saucepan.

"You put the chicken in cold water, didn't you, to draw the goodness out?"

"Yes, indeed. I cut up the chicken and cracked the bones so that all that inside goodness wouldn't be wasted. A quart and a pint of water covered it well and it's going to stay on until the meat all falls to pieces. That will be about three hours from the time I put it on."

"Are you going to put rice in it?"

"I'm going to take down the rice in a separate little bowl this time because I don't know whether Mr. Emerson likes rice."

"Be sure you don't over-cook it. Every grain should be separate."

"I learned the very simplest way to cook rice. Wash it and put it into boiling salted water, a quart of water to a cupful of rice. Putting the rice in will stop the boiling, so when it boils up again you give it just one stir to keep the kernels from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. You mustn't stir it any more or you'll break the grains. It will be done in about twenty minutes. Then you pour it lightly into a colander and turn it lightly from the colander into your serving dish, and there you are, every grain separate."

"If you save the rice water it serves as a vegetable stock for a soup."

"Our teacher told us a story about the value of rice water. It was in a famine time in India and some of the natives went to the English and said that if they could have the water the camp rice was cooked in they wouldn't ask for anything else."

"They knew how strong and good it is. Mr. Emerson won't want more than a cupful of chicken broth this afternoon--what are you going to do with the rest of it?"

"One gill of it will make chicken custard with the beaten yolks of two eggs and a pinch of salt. You cook it in a double boiler until it is thick."

"That ought to taste good and be nourishing, too."

"I shall put on another gill of the broth, with a teaspoonful of Irish moss if I can find the kind that is prepared in powder form. After that has boiled about fifteen minutes I shall strain it through a piece of cheesecloth into a cup and when it has stiffened and I'm ready to serve it, I'll turn it out on a pretty little plate and lay a sprig of parsley on top."

"That will just about use up the broth from one chicken."

"I can give Mr. Emerson a variety by making mutton broth. A quart of cold water to a pound of meat is the right proportion, and then you make it just like chicken broth."

"You mustn't forget to trim off all the fat you can before you put it in, and to skim off any bubbles of fat that rise to the top."

"I shan't make any beef tea unless they ask for it especially, because the doctors say nowadays that there isn't much nourishment in it, it's just stimulating. I shall give my patient cereals and porridges made exactly according to the directions that are on the boxes."

"A thoroughly baked white potato served piping hot is delicious. Break it open at the last minute and put into it a dab of b.u.t.ter and a teaspoon of cream and a wee bit of salt, and a dash of pepper if your patient can stand pepper. A baked potato goes well with a broiled breast of chicken."

"If this 'case' of mine lasts long enough so that I have to make more chicken broth I shall cut off the breast before I cut up the chicken for the broth."

"Broil it until it is quite brown, and after you have put it on a warm plate ready to serve, add a tiny dab of b.u.t.ter and a little salt. Do the same with a lamb chop, and be sure that every bit of meat except the choice mouthful or two is cut away before you cook it."

"I shan't let the butcher trim it, though. Those bits that come off help out in a soup."

"Tapioca jelly is something you must try for one of your invalid's desserts."

"The doctor said he must have fruits mostly, but I'd like to try the tapioca once."

"Take half a cupful of tapioca and two cupfuls of water, the juice and a little of the grated rind of half a lemon, and a teaspoonful of sugar.

Soak the tapioca in the water for four hours. Stir in the sugar just as you put it all in the double boiler. Cook it for about three-quarters of an hour. You should stir it often and it ought to be perfectly clear when it is done. Stir in the lemon at the last minute and then pour it into cups or molds."

"That sounds good to me. I think I'll try it for our own dessert some day."

"When you make toast always be careful to cut your slices of bread all of the same thickness and to cut off the crusts. Then warm the slices first and afterwards brown them delicately. When you make milk toast b.u.t.ter the slices and sprinkle on a few grains of salt and then pour over them a cupful of boiling milk thickened with half a teaspoonful of flour. Do it carefully. It is care about little things that makes a dish palatable for an invalid, you must remember."

"Della Watkins gave me some flowers to-day, so I shall have one to put on the waiter."

"I want to tell you, dear, why I am especially glad that you are having this opportunity to show that you can put your knowledge into actual practice."

"I did last winter when I made the baskets for Christmas."

"You did wonderfully. You've noticed that I am always advising you to learn things that will be valuable to you. I mean valuable in a money way as well as in giving pleasure to yourself and others."

Dorothy curled up in her mother's lap and made a soft hum of a.s.sent.

"The reason I've done that is because I've seen our little stock of money growing smaller and smaller all the time. Last winter I didn't make quite enough at the art store to support us both, and I had to draw on our princ.i.p.al in spite of your doing so splendidly with your baskets."

"But this summer you're all right, aren't you?"

"This summer I am meeting our expenses, but I'm not laying by a penny, and when the season ends here I don't know where we shall go or what I can do. So you see that every cent you are able to make is a great help."

"If I prepare these things all right for Ethel's grandfather I won't be scared if I have a chance to do it again."

"Certainly you won't. Every success gives confidence."

"We might start a kitchen somewhere in an especially unhealthy neighborhood and I could make invalids' stuff all the time at a hundred dollars a tray."

Mrs. Smith laughed.

"That's not such a bad idea," she agreed. "At any rate we must always have faith that work of some sort will be given to us. It hasn't failed as yet, even when things looked pretty bad."

"There was a postcard in the picture booth in the pergola the other day that said, HAVE FAITH AND HUSTLE."

"That's good advice. _Prudence_ without worry and _energy_ without scatteration of mind and _faith_ woven into it all; that's my gospel."

After her mother had gone, Dorothy took out a pad and pencil and made a list of broths and dishes which she already knew how to make and another that she meant to ask her cooking teacher about. She knew that she had only to tell her teacher that she was putting her information into actual practice and she would have all the help that she needed.

She wanted to rely on herself as much as she could, however.

If there was just a shade of doubt in the back of her mind about the success of her cooking it was gone when she went in to Mr. Emerson's room to take away the tray after he had finished his first meal of her preparation.