Part 28 (2/2)

”And maybe Faith is, too,” whispered Peace, cautiously opening the door and peeping within. ”No, she ain't, but she has made four big cakes.

My! Don't they look fine? One choc'late loaf, two caramel layers, and one white square one. Looks like a graveyard with them all set even in a row, doesn't it? There ought to be three frosting pans to lick.”

”I don't see a single any,” remarked Allee, poking into every nook and cranny in hope of finding their treat. ”I guess she licked them all herself.”

”That's too mean of her,” cried Peace, joining in the hunt with no better success. ”She could have saved those dishes for us as well as not. What have you found?”

Allee at that moment had unearthed two mysterious little packages, and in trying to investigate one of them, she dropped it, and the bag's contents were scattered all over the floor.

”Candies!” gasped Peace. ”s.h.!.+ Don't cry! I'll help you pick them up.

They must be for Minnie Eastman's birthday cake. I s'pose that is the white frosted one. The candies aren't hurt a mite, Allee. Stop snivelling. Let's see what is in that other sack. Sugar, green sugar!

Looks poison, doesn't it? But it tastes all right. Oh, see what I've done! My little United States map fell right on top of the white cake.”

”It fits, too,” gulped tearful Allee. ”Looks as if it b'longed there.”

”It's going to b'long!” cried Peace with sudden decision. ”I shall trace around it with this pointed knife and then fix it up like Hope does her _paper mush_ maps. See, the frosting is soft enough to work easy.”

”You better not,” Allen protested. ”Faith might not like it.”

”Faith's tickled to death when she can find some new way of dec'rating her cakes, and as this is Minnie's birthday cake she'll be awfully pleased, 'cause she got the highest mark in geography of anyone in their room, Hope says.”

As she talked, she wielded the sharp knife with surprisingly good results in tracing the ragged outlines of the map in the soft icing, and even critical Allee was charmed when the paper was lifted, disclosing the knife marks. ”You have to put all those blue lines in, too, don't you?” she asked. ”How can you do that?”

Peace pondered. ”Those are rivers and these brown smudges are mountains.

I asked Hope once. They all ought to go in, but I'm afraid I can't draw straight enough. Oh, I know what I'll do. Mrs. Strong uses pin-p.r.i.c.ked patterns for stamping Glen's dresses. I'll try that.” Carefully, laboriously, she p.r.i.c.ked in the rivers, mountains and state boundaries, mistaking the latter for railroads; and then drew back to survey her work.

”The pin marks don't show much, do they?” ventured Allee.

”No, but I shan't leave them there anyway--not alone. We'll cover the railroads with these colored candies, and the rivers we'll make of green sugar. They are blue on the map, but green and blue ain't much different, anyway. We'll jam down the ocean and cover that with green, too. These curly choc'late candies will make good mountains, and by heaping up the frosting we dug out of the ocean we'll have islands and lighthouses. Now, ain't that elegant?”

”Oh, my precious State Fair cake!” cried a dismayed voice behind them, and before either guilty decorator could face the angry sister, they were seized firmly by the shoulders, jerked through the doorway, vigorously shaken, each dealt a smart blow across their ears, and left dazed and tearful in the middle of the kitchen, while the avenger rushed sobbing upstairs.

Neither culprit had recovered her breath when Gail was upon them, not the gentle sister they were accustomed to seeing, but a stern, indignant, justice-dealing judge.

”Peace Greenfield,” she said severely, ”what have you done? Ruined the cake Faith has taken such pains with for the Fair!”

”I--I thought it was Minnie's birthday cake. I--I just dec'rated it.”

”Just decorated it! What for? What business had you to touch it? That was pure mischief and nothing else. She intended making a spray of roses and green leaves on that cake and now you've spoiled it. Go sit down in your little chairs and stay there until noon. For fear you will forget about staying there, I shall tie you in.”

”Oh, Gail, as if we were little kids!”

”That is what you are when you meddle with things that don't belong to you. I have talked until I am tired. You don't pay a bit of attention, so I must punish you some other way. Next time I shall send you to bed.

Perhaps I better do that today.”

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