A Little Preserving Book for a Little Girl

There were two long and very wide shelves, besides a good-sized bench that had a shelf underneath, in mother's preserve closet. Before these stood two little girls, Jessie May and Adelaide. Jessie May was Adelaide's most intimate friend, who had been away the whole summer long. To be sure, they had written to one another regularly, and in each letter that Adelaide sent to Jessie May she hinted at a wonderful secret. Now they were together again, the one longing to hear and the other eager to tell the wonderful secret. "You see," said Adelaide, pointing proudly to the bench and its shelf underneath, "this is all my work, the other (indicating the two long and very wide shelves) is mother's."