you manage yesterday? If I had only known, I
would have come and got dinner for you."

"Oh! we got on very well indeed," replied Pink, laughing, "though there
were one or two mishaps. Fortunately there was plenty of bread in the
cupboard, where we could easily reach it; and with that and the molasses
jug, we were in no danger of starvation. But Mother had left a
custard-pie on the upper shelf, and poor Bubble wanted a piece of it for
dinner. But neither of us cripples could get at it; and for a long time
we could think of no plan which would make it possible. At last Bubble
had a bright idea. You remember the big fork that Mother uses to take
pies out of the oven? Well, he spliced that on to the broom-handle, and
then, standing well back, so that he could see (on one foot, of course,
for he couldn't put the other to the ground), he reached for the pie. It
was a dreadful moment, Hilda! The pie slid easily on to the fork, and
for a moment all seemed to promise well; but the next minute, just as
Bubble began to lower it, he wavered on his one foot--only a little, but
enough to send the poor pie tumbling to the ground."

"Poor pie!" cried Bubble. "Wal, I like that! Poor _me_, I sh'd say. I'd
had bread'n m'lasses three meals runnin', Miss Hildy. Now don't you
think that old pie might ha' come down straight?"

"You should have seen his face, poor dear!" cried Pink. "He really
couldn't laugh--for almost two minutes."

"Wal, I s'pose 'twas kind o' funny," the boy admitted, while Hilda
laughed merrily over the catastrophe. "But thar! when one's used to
standin' on two legs, it's dretful onhandy tryin' to stand on one. We'll
have bread and jam to-day," he added, with an affectionate glance at
the pot of marmalade, "and that's a good enough dinner for the Governor
o' the State."

"Indeed, you shall have more than that!" cried Hildegarde. "Nurse Lucy
does not need me before dinner, so I will get your dinner for you."

So the active girl made up the fire anew, swept the floor, dusted tables
and chairs, and made the little room look tidy and cheerful, as Pink
loved to see it. Then she ran down to the cellar, and reappeared with a
basket of potatoes and a pan of rosy apples.

"Now we will perform a trio!" she said. "Pink, you shall peel and core
the apples for apple-sauce, and Bubble shall pare the potatoes, while I
make biscuit and gingerbread."

Accordingly, she rolled up her sleeves and set busily to work; the
others foll