brown arms, she whipped all vigorously together. When she had beaten the
batter well, she placed the pan on a chair near the fire and covered it
with a cloth that it might rise. Tobias took down the frying-pan,
greased it with a little lard, and put it on the stove for a moment to
warm, so that the batter might brown all over equally.

Riekje and Dolf, sitting side by side on the same bench, took some
apples from a basket, cored, and afterwards sliced them. Then Nelle went
slyly to fetch a second saucepan from the cupboard and placed it on the
fire; she poured in some warm water, adding flour, thyme, and laurel
leaves. Dolf noticed that the saucepan contained something else, but
Nelle covered it up so quickly that he could not tell whether it were
meat or cabbage. He was puzzled and tried to guess.

Gradually the contents began to boil, and a thin, brown smoke escaped
from the lid which bubbled up and down. Dolf stretched his nose towards
the stove and opened his nostrils wide enough for a nut to rest in each,
but still he could not define the smell.

When maman Nelle went to lift the lid to see if the contents were
cooking properly, he stood on tip-toe behind her back, making himself,
for the fun of the thing, first quite short, and then quite tall.

Riekje laughed quietly as she looked out of the corner of her eye.
Suddenly Dolf gave a cry to surprise his mother, but Nelle had seen him
come up, and just at the moment when he thought to look into the pot she
put down the lid and nodded to him:

"Who's caught now, Dolf?" But he cried out, laughing; "I saw that time,
mother. It's Slipper's old cat that you have put into the stew-pan, with