sed to
search her cook book for receipts for other things, and as her mother
got better she made something new every day. By the time Mother Blair
was perfectly well and strong again, she felt she had grown to be a real
sick-cook. And the best thing of all was that the doctor said the reason
her mother got well so fast was that she had had such nourishing and
delicious things to eat!

CHAPTER XIII

A DOLL-AND-LITTLE-GIRL PARTY

Mother Blair had an old school friend coming out to spend the day, and
she had written that she must bring her little five year old daughter
with her. This wasn't a bit convenient for the Blairs, because Miss
Betty was to give a luncheon for the older people, and Mildred had
planned to go to town for the day; and, of course, Jack couldn't be
bothered to help take care of a child. That, surely, wasn't man's work,
he declared.

So Brownie saw that she must entertain the small Helen all by herself,
and she sat down to think what she should do for her.

"Five years old," she said to herself. "That means dolls, I guess. I'm
pretty old for dolls, but of course I _could_ get Araminta down from the
attic, only she's packed up so nicely that I hate to disturb her. I
wonder if five year olds play games? Mother Blair, do you think we could
play in the attic with Helen's doll and Araminta, if I get her out, or
what can we do?"

"Helen has had a bad cough, dear, and I'm afraid her mother would think
that she must stay where there were no draughts. Why don't you have a
little bit of a party for her? We could ask four other children about
her age--"

"Oh, Mother, _I_ know! I'll have a dolls' party, and cook cunning things
in tiny little dishes just big enough for dolls to eat. That would be
perfectly lovely, and I know Mildred would help me make some of them the
day before."

"That would really be ever so much fun," Mother Blair said. "Run and ask
Norah if she has any very little tins and molds that you can use, and
I'll look up some receipts for you. Brownie, that dolls' party is what I
call a really bright idea."

Norah was not at all busy just then so she got a kitchen chair and
hunted on the top shelf in the tin closet and found several things for
Brownie. One was a little tumbler of heavy glass, half the size of a
small jelly glass; it had been used in traveling one summer when the
Blairs were younger. Then there were six muffin tins fastened together
like a pan which were never used b