"Fine, Betty! We'll do it again! I don't object at all to getting up early when I'm once up! And we ought to get out and play tennis before breakfast every day."

"I knew you'd like it when you'd tried it once. But it took my birthday to make you willing to celebrate this way."

"Just you wait till you see what I have for you at home! I made it all myself, with a little help from Ruth!"

"Oh, Bob, is that what you've been doing all these evenings? I'm so anxious to see it! I've begrudged the time you've spent all alone hammering and sawing away down in the basement, but I didn't let myself even wonder what it was you were making, since you had asked me not to look."

"Well, while you're beginning the breakfast, I'll be bringing your birthday gift upstairs. Then I can help you."

In a short time, when Bettina was arranging the cheerful hollyhocks on the table, she heard a low whistle behind her. There stood Bob—looking like a sandwich-man, with a brightly flowered cretonne screen draped about him.

"Well, how do you like it?"

"Oh, Bob, it's the sewing-screen I've been wanting, and it just matches the cretonne bedroom hangings! Here are the little pockets for mending and darning materials—and the larger ones for the unfinished work! How beautifully it is made—and won't it be convenient! It will be useful as a screen, and also as a place for those sewing things, for I have no good place at all in which to keep them! It will be decorative, too! And how light it is! I can carry it so easily, and work beside it on the porch or in the living room!"

"Glad you like it! Ruth designed it, and made the pockets. I did the carpenter work."

"Bob, it's a lovely birthday gift, and I appreciate it all the more because you made it yourself. How pretty it is with all the woodwork enameled white!"

"I wanted it to match the bedroom things. Well, is that coffee done yet? Tennis certainly does give me an appetite!"

Breakfast consisted of:

Butter the bottom of a saucepan or frying-pan. Fill half full of boiling water. Break the eggs one at a time in a sauce dish, and slip them very gently into the pan of boiling water. The eggs will lower the temperature of the water to a point below the boiling point. Keep the water at this point (below boiling). Allow the eggs to remain in the water four to six minutes, or until the desired consistency. Remove from the water with a skimmer and serve on slices of toast which are hot, buttered, and slightly moistened with water. The proper length of time for poaching eggs is until a white film has formed over the yolks and the white is firm. A tin or aluminum egg poacher is very convenient. When using rings, butter the rings, fill each compartment with an egg, and dip into the boiling water. These are inexpensive, and economical, as no part of the egg is wasted.

Toast slices of bread one-half an inch thick on the broiler directly under the flame, or on a toaster fitted for a burner on top of the stove. Brown on one side, then turn and brown on the other. When both sides are an even golden brown, butter one side, care being taken to butter the edges. Set the toast on an enamel plate or tin pie-pan in the oven, until all the pieces are ready for serving. Always serve toast very hot.

Wash, peel and core the apples. Add water and cook slowly in a covered utensil until tender. Remove cover, add the sugar and cook two minutes. Sprinkle cinnamon on the top.