At Cedar Point Cottage on Nipantuck Island, one day I found Mary Jane in a state of great perturbation; she was sitting on the edge of a washtub, her face very red and with her wetted thumb she was turning over the leaves of a cook book at a rapid rate.

"I don't know what to give 'em," she said.

"What's the matter?"

"Pudding: Them fifteen boarders will be here in less than an hour as hungry as go-its, and they won't think they've had any dinner if there don't be pudding every day."

"Well," I said, "you know there are some kinds can be made in a few minutes," and I looked to see whether her fire was good.

"I know," she returned, "yes, I know lots, but all the dratted puddings seems to want eggs and there isn't an egg on the island this blessed day."

"Oh, that's the trouble; then why not try this," and I pointed out No. 176.

"There it is again," says Mary Jane, "that's cherry pudding and where would I get the cherries?"

"Don't you see that what is good for one kind of fruit is good for any other kind? That receipt shows the way they make the steamed apple pudding or apple rolls as they call it at some high-priced city restaurants; for never an egg do they use for puddings at some of those places; they chop the apples small and use the same as that says to use cherries."

"And would these blackberries do that I was going to make pie of and didn't find time?"

"Of course they will, and it only takes about five minutes and your pot there is boiling and there is the steamer hanging up clean and ready and you must do this way, use a large pie plate, and be sure not to have the layers of dough too thick because they rise so much that the pudding will seem to have too little fruit if you do. It will be all the better for being made late and being served as soon as it is done."

By that time Mary Jane's perplexity was all over, and when the time came to change those fifteen plates she had ready for them as fine a pudding as you would wish to meet on a summer day. For another class of puddings without eggs see Nos. 631, 639, 652, 594 and index.