“"Just think!" she exclaimed as she climbed into the carriage again. "A cawn-cob doll! And the attic at home is full of toys that I don't care for! I'm going to pick out a basketful to-morrow and bring them down to these children. And did you see that poah little Minnie Crisp? Only eight yeahs old, and doing the work of a grown woman. She was getting suppah while her mothah tended to the sick baby. Oh, I wondah," she cried, her face lighting up with the thought. "I wondah if Mrs. Crisp would mind if I'd come down to-morrow and cook dinnah for them. That's what I've been crazy to do,--to cook. I could bring eggs and sugah and all the materials, and make lemon pie and oystah soup and potato croquettes. I know how to make lots of things. Oh, do you suppose she would be offended?"”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
1 cupful of cold meat, chopped fine. 1 cupful of cold mashed potatoes. 1 teaspoonful of salt. 1/4 teaspoonful of pepper. 1/2 cupful of milk. 2 tablespoonfuls of butter. 2 eggs. Dried bread crumbs. Fat for frying. Mix the meat, potatoes, and seasoning. Put the milk and butter in a frying-pan, and when the liquid boils up put in the meat and potatoes, and cook for one minute. Beat one egg well and stir it into the hot mixture. Take from the fire immediately, and, after pouring out on a plate, set away to cool. When cold, shape into cylinders about three inches long, and bread and fry. [Illustration: CROQUETTES READY FOR SERVING.] The second egg and the crumbs are for the breading. Hominy or rice may be substituted for the potatoes.
Sources: The passage is from Annie F. (Annie Fellows) Johnston, The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Parloa, Miss Parloa's Young Housekeeper of 1893, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — slate cloth, amphora stamp.