t
girls."

"And I'll help Nan bake her cake," offered Flossie.

"So will I," added Freddie. "I like to clean out the cake dishes, and
eat the sweet dough and the icing."

"Oh, I want to do some of that, too!" cried Flossie.

"I can see what kind of a time you're going to have making your cake!"
laughed Bert, "with those two youngsters hanging around."

"Oh, I'll take care of them," said Nan, smiling.

"Goin' t' bake a cake, is yo'?" asked Dinah, when Nan came out in the
kitchen the next Saturday, which was the date of the party. "Don't yo'
all t'ink yo'd bettah let me make it fo' yo'?"

"No, thank you, Dinah, I want to make it myself," said Nan. "I want to
show the girls and boys that I know how to make a cake almost, if not
quite, as well as you and mother make them."

"Well, honey, ef yo' makes a cake as good as yo' ma, den yo' will
suttinly be a fine cook," returned Dinah. "Fo' yo' ma is suah a prime
cake-maker!"

"Oh, I don't suppose the cake will be as good as mother's," said Nan,
"but still I'll never learn if I don't try."

So Nan began her cake. Flossie and Freddie were playing out in the yard,
but when they saw Nan in the kitchen, in they came, running.

"I'm going to help!" cried Freddie.

"So'm I," added his sister.

"Well, there's not much you can do," said Nan, "except to hand me the
things I need. First I'm going to get everything together on the table,
and then I won't have to fuss around, and get in Dinah's way."

"Oh, yo' won't be in mah way, honey-lamb!" said the loving old colored
woman. "Jest make yo'se'f right t' home."

Nan got from the pantry the eggs, the flour, the sugar, and the other
things that were needed to make a sponge cake. Then when she had the
brown bowl ready in which the cake batter would be mixed she sat down on
a high stool at the table, with Flossie on one side and Freddie on the
other.

"Now, Flossie, you hand me an egg," said Nan, and Flossie picked one up
from the dish. She was handing it over to her sister, but her chubby
fingers slipped and--crack! went the egg down on the floor, breaking, of
course.

"Oh dear!" cried Flossie. "Now the cake is spoiled!"

"Oh, no, not because one egg is broken," said Nan. "But still we must be
more careful. Perhaps I had better handle the eggs myself."

"You had if you want any cake," called Bert, looking in through the
window on his way to play ball with Ned Barton and Charley Mason.

"Oh, I guess we'll make out all