spotlessly white and clean. But poor Blanche had no mirror, so when the prince asked to look at her in a mirror she ran and got her dishpan, which was pol

FLOUR

FORNME PATMEAL

SUGAR SALT

ished so it shone like silver. The minute the prince saw her reflection in the dishpan, he cried, ‘You are the Bride that I have so long sought, for you will keep my palace as snow-white as your cottage.' And so, as my grandmother used to say to my little sister, 'A clean kitchen and a shining dishpan make the plainest housekeeper look beautiful.'"

THINGS TO REMEMBER

Food carefully bought must be carefully stored at home. Outdoor screened closets keep fresh and cool food that does not need to be on ice. This way of storing food saves ice and space in the refrigerator for the perishable things.

Everything that goes into the refrigerator must be as clean as we can have it. Milk bottles, and especially their tops, must be carefully washed and wiped to remove dirt or possible germs that may have come from contact with dirty hands or dirty ice. Meats should be taken out of the paper they were wrapped in, wiped with a fresh, moist cloth and laid on a clean plate. Lettuce and celery should

be separated and washed piece by piece in running or clean water, then wrapped in a clean cloth and laid on ice. Indeed every food should be taken out of its grocery wrapping paper and put into a clean container. Then you are ready to put your food into its closet or refrigerator. The cleanest place in the house should be the kitchen, and the most careful person should be the cook.

TO THINK ABOUT

How can you save ice and still keep food cool and protected from insects?

Why ought we to wash the tops of our milk bottles before we put them away or pour milk from them? Watch the drivers of milk wagons and see if there is a reason. Notice where the bottles stand before they are brought indoors.

Examine the next vegetables that come to the houseespecially lettuce or spinach. What reason for washing them before putting them away, do you find? How can we keep lettuce and celery fresh and crisp?

How does a good housekeeper put away her meats? What food besides meat MUST go into the refrigerator as soon as we get it? What are the reasons?

Why do we want the people who cook and care for our foods to have the cleanest habits?

CHAPTER XIX

THE MILKY WAY

"THERE," said Mother, as she untied her apron and joined the rest of the family on the front porch, "the ice-cream is all made, Paul, ready for you and Father to freeze it the first thing tomorrow morning."

"Did you put it where Billiken can't get at it if he should sneak in?" asked Paul, anxiously.

"Yes, indeed. It's in the screen-closet on top of the refrigerator. By bedtime it will be cool enough to go into the refrigerator, itself."

"I think home-made ice-cream is ever so much nicer than the kind you buy," said Ruth. "The other day Minnie Nixon was absent from school and afterward she told me that it was because she ate some ice-cream that she bought from the hokey-pokey man, and it made her dreadfully sick at her stomach."

"Why do they call it 'hokey-pokey"?" asked Paul. "It's such a queer name."

"I suppose they gave it that name because it isn't real, good, genuine ice-cream-just a sort of sham. You know, a 'hocus-pocus' is another word for a 'hoax,' or trick. So hokey-pokey ice-cream is a cheat. It's cold and tastes sweet, but it isn't good, clean wholesome food, as home-made ice-cream is, and anyone who buys it is likely to be cheated, as poor Minnie was."

"The hokey-pokey men are usually dirty," said Ruth, "but I don't see how the dirt gets inside of the ice-cream can."

"It isn't just dirt, Ruthie, that makes people ill," said Father. "Milk may not have any actual dirt in it, but if it is stale, the germs have grown and grown until the milk is spoiled. The acid in sour milk, if it stands in a tin, like the freezer, is likely to form a sort of poison and make you very ill. That is probably what happened to Minnie.'

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'When she and I were making fudge yesterday, I opened the can of condensed milk and left it stand

ing a minute on the table and she screamed at me, 'Ruth Weston, don't you know any better than to leave that milk standing in the tin?' She came near throwing it away, just because it had stood in the open tin for a moment."

"Well, I wouldn't want you to be too fussy,"replied Mother, "but it really is dangerous to

leave any food, especially milk, in its can after it has been opened. You know that when I canned tomatoes last week I was very careful not to have any bubbles of air in the jar, for the air has in it the germs, or seeds, that cause decay and turn things sour. So, when you open a tin of milk, the germs begin to get busy, and the milk should be poured at once into a glass or china or enamel pitcher or pan, and should be kept cool, just as if it were fresh milk. Canned food is very convenient, but it needs care, or it may make you ill."

"Colonel Wyndham told me," put in Paul, "that in the army they used milk that had been dried into a powder. Why didn't the powder turn sour?”

"Because the germs that turn things sour need water in order to live. When milk is dried into a powder all the water is taken out of it and no germs can live in it. When powdered milk is to be used, the