Once upon a time there was a strawberry shortcake, all juicy and sweet and pleasant to eat.  
A little boy named Ben picked the for it. He went out to the field where the wild strawberries grew, all by himself; and when he came home he had a bucket full of the very ripest and reddest ones.
 
A little girl, Cousin Pen, who was visiting on the farm, capped the berries, and that was not nearly so easy to do as it sounds. It took Cousin Pen every bit of a half-hour to do it, and—do you believe it?—she did not eat a single . She saved every one of them for the strawberry shortcake.
 
Mamma made the shortcake. She was the best cook! If I should try to tell you all the good things she could make, it would take me longer than it took Cousin Pen to cap the berries; but I will tell you this, if there was one thing she liked to make better than another it was a strawberry shortcake.
 
A big boy almost nine years old, whom every one called Brother Fred, cut the wood, and the , and made the fire that baked the for the strawberry shortcake. He had a little of his own, and the way he could m............