eginning on Muffins

"The folks around here never had seen anything except white bread. There
wasn't a piece of cornbread or of graham anywhere. You know what their
white bread is, too--heavy, sour, badly made and only half cooked. The
old folks were satisfied, though, and there didn't seem to be any way to
go at it except through the youngsters. Day after day I saw them take
raw white biscuits and sandwiches made of salt-rising white bread out of
their baskets, wondering how they could eat them. Still I didn't say
anything, but every lunch time I ate corn muffins or graham wafers, with
all of the gusto I could master. One day a little girl up and asked me:

"'Say, Miss Belle, what may you all be eatin'?'

"'Corn muffins,' said I. 'Ever taste them?'

"'Nope.'

"'Well, wouldn't you like a taste?'

"'Sure I would.'

"She took it, and a great big one, too. 'Um,' says she, smacking her
lips, 'Um.'

"'Like it?' I asked.

"'Um,' says she again, like a baby with a full stomach.

"'Oh, Miss Belle,' piped up Annie, 'how do you make 'em?'

"That was the chance I had been waiting for.

"'Would you like to know?' I asked, and to a chorus of 'Sure,' ''Deed we
would,' 'Oh, yes,' I put the recipe on the board, and it wasn't two days
before those girls brought in as good corn muffins as I ever tasted.
Little Annie is a good cook--never saw a better--and before the week was
out she says to me:

"'Miss Belle, ma's mad with you.'

"'What all's the matter?' I asked.

"'She says since you taught us to make those corn muffins she'll be
eaten out of house and home. The first night I made 'em pa ate eleven.
He hasn't slackened off a bit since. He must have 'em every day.'

"That made the going pretty easy," Miss Belle went on. "The muffins were
mighty good, they were new, and, by comparison, the white biscuits
didn't have a show. It wasn't long before I had the whole neighborhood
making corn muffins, graham wafers, black bread, graham bread and
whole-wheat bread. They sure did catch on to the idea quickly. Every
Monday I put a recipe on the board. These women knew how to cook the
fancy things. It was the plain, simple, wholesome things that they
needed to know about, so my recipes were always for them. During the
week each of the children cooks the thing and brings it to me, and the
one who gets the best result puts a recipe on the board Friday.

"You see, after I once got started it wasn't hard to follow up any line
I li