While Arthur was the turtle for the second time, Ardath got the idea the turtle would look cute with a necktie. She took off her belt and tied it around the turtles neck.

"Oh, Arthur, I wish you could see yourself," Ardath chuckled aloud.

"Why don't you ask me any questions?" Arthur asked impatiently as he looked out from under his cover.

"Let's don't play ‘turtle' anymore," Ardath suggested.

"I'll play ‘turtle' all alone if you won't play with me." Arthur decided. He crawled around on the hall-floor with his hands tied together but it wasn't much fun playing alone especially not after he had played the game a whole hour with someone else.

Ardath had said she was going to the kitchen to see if Miss Mary needed any help. Arthur took his cover off and slopped the string from around his wrists. He thought he would see what Ardath had found to do in the kitchen.

"Hold it young man." Grandfather had been watching through his Study doorway and had seen Arthur throw the cover and shoe lacer on the floor.

"You may bring me my shoe lacer" Arthur took the show lacer to Grandfather.

"Now fold the old table cloth and take it to Miss Mary. She will put it back on the high shelf in the closet. You may want to play with it another time."

Mary was in the kitchen telling Ardath about baking cookies. Arthur asked her if she would please put the cloth away because they might want to use it, again. Mary put the cloth where it belonged, then asked Arthur.

"Would you like to crack some shell barks for us to bake cookies?"

"Could I use a big hammer?" Arthur liked the idea of cracking nuts.

"The hammer would not be very big", Mary told him. Arthur had not been sure he could handle a big hammer.

"I can hammer with a little hammer." Arthur assured Mary.

Mary brought a can of nuts from the pantry, as she said, "These are left from last Fall." She took a handful of nuts from the can and the children looked at them. They had never seen shell barks.

"They look like small English walnuts," Ardath observed. "But they have smooth shells."

"Adam gathered them. You should ask him to show you the big shell bark tree." Mary suggested.

Mary went to the pantry again, after handing the can of nuts to Arthur. She brought newspapers and spread them on the kitchen floor.

"There is a brick and small hammer in the breezeway besides the boot rack. Will you please fetch it?" Mary asked Arthur to set up his workshop for cracking nuts. When it was as she directed, she showed Arthur how to hold the nuts just right so he would not hit his fingers with the hammer.

Arthur held the nuts as Mary taught him to do. Although he was careful, sometimes he hit his finger, but never hard enough to hurt. Sometimes a nut would fly the whole way across the kitchen floor and he had to bring it back.

The nuts were cracked when he hit them just right. The broken shells with the nut meats were dropped into a bowl Mary set on the floor besides the brick.

It was great fun pounding and sometimes Arthur just bounded the brick and little chips of red clay would fall off. Grandfather shut the door of his Study. The pounding was not as pleasant as the children's playful laughter had been.

The bowl filled slowly with cracked nuts while Ardath helped Mary assemble the other ingredients for the cookies.

"Flour, sugar, eggs, coconut oil and milk." Mary reviewed the recipe. "That is everything we need, except the nuts." She concluded.

By the time Mary said there were enough nuts cracked, Arthur was tired pounding. He never would have guessed it took so many shell barks to have enough to cookies.

Ardath, Arthur and Mary each took a nut-pick to get the kernels out of the shells. The children had helped to get kernels out of cracked nuts before, but never out of shell barks. It was tedious work and took twenty minutes before there was a cupful, which was the amount needed to put into the cookies.

Arthur had tasted some of the kernels that had fallen loose from the shells when he was cracking the nuts, but he was so interested in getting the cup filled, that he did not taste any while he was picking them from the shells. Ardath tasted a few, but not enough to spoil her appetite for lunch.

The cookie dough was all mixed and the nuts were added.

Mary looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. "We must have poked around on the mob." she said. "We won't get these done before lunch. The cookies can be baked when we have the oven hot for preparing dinner, tonight."

Arthur was disappointed. He had worked so steadily anticipating the cookies for lunch. If he would not have the cookies for lunch, he was a least glad that it was so near lunch time.

"I must get the mail after lunch." Arthur remembered, looking out a kitchen window. It was not raining anymore and the sun was beginning to shine through the clouds.

"If it stops raining, I can't wear my boots and raincoat," Arthur said, almost sorry the rain had ceased. He went to the breezeway to check on his boots as though he thought they might have run away. They were still there, but the dirt had dried on them. He asked Mary for a cloth to clean them.
|Top|