`` When I was a girl it was n't considered lady-like to know anything about Mathematics , '' said Aunt Jamesina . `` But times have changed . I do n't know that it 's all for the better . Can you cook , Phil ? '' `` No , I never cooked anything in my life except a gingerbread and it was a failure -- flat in the middle and hilly round the edges . You know the kind . But , Aunty , when I begin in good earnest to learn to cook do n't you think the brains that enable me to win a mathematical scholarship will also enable me to learn cooking just as well ? '' `` Maybe , '' said Aunt Jamesina cautiously . `` I am not decrying the higher education of women . My daughter is an M.A. . She can cook , too . But I taught her to cook BEFORE I let a college professor teach her Mathematics . '' In mid-March came a letter from Miss Patty Spofford , saying that she and Miss Maria had decided to remain abroad for another year . `` So you may have Patty 's Place next winter , too , '' she wrote . `` Maria and I are going to run over Egypt . I want to see the Sphinx once before I die . '' `` Fancy those two dames ` running over Egypt ' ! I wonder if they 'll look up at the Sphinx and knit , '' laughed Priscilla . `` I 'm so glad we can keep Patty 's Place for another year , '' said Stella . `` I was afraid they 'd come back .
And then our jolly little nest here would be broken up -- and we poor callow nestlings thrown out on the cruel world XXXXX boardinghouses again . ''
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