Winter Orchid

The Attempt at Making Pancakes

A while later, Snufkin realized there was, in fact, something to lose, which was his good mood and a fresh batch of pancake batter. A few minutes prior Snorkmaiden had him stir the batter, which was quite thick. It got so frustrating that he almost yelled, but he kept that to a minimum. Then, right as he had finally finished stirring it, he dropped the bowl on the ground, and so that was the end of the batter. At that point he'd had just about enough, and left the kitchen. Now, he was sitting quite angrily on the arm of the couch, next to Moomintroll.
"Don't be upset dear Snufkin," Consoled Moomintroll, "You could always make new pancake batter. Plus, practice makes perfect, right?"
"I've a very good reason to be upset, so I'm going to be upset," He responded. Moomintroll couldn't think of anything further to be said on the matter, so he started talking about mushrooms.
"Mamma told me," He began, "when I was very little, I had eaten a poisonous mushroom. Don't worry, it wasn't very bad. But anyways, she said we were in the forest, and I saw a pretty one, so I just ate it. Right there." Snufkin couldn't help but laugh at this story.
"I just saw this random object," He continued, "I'd never seen it before in my entire life, so what did I do? I shoved it into my mouth." By now, Snufkin was laughing hysterically. Even Too Ticky couldn't help but laugh at the way he'd described it. Snorkmaiden overheard and began laughing herself, and soon everyone was laughing so hard that they'd forgotten why, and the story was never finished.
Snorkmaiden convinced Snufkin to assist her in the second attempt at making pancakes. It went well until Moomintroll knocked over a glass vase as soon as the pancakes were put in the oven, so Snufkin and Snorkmaiden went to help find the shards. Everything was going fine until they smelt smoke. Yes, the pancakes had burnt. Snufkin stamped his feet on the ground in anger.
"Calm down," Said Snorkmaiden, "That wasn't anybody's fault, really. We'll make a new batch and everything will be fine!"
Everything was not fine. Snufkin had poured in salt instead of flour.
"How do you even do that?!" Asked Snorkmaiden, who was now quite annoyed that they'd have to do this a fourth time.
"I don't know!" Replied Snufkin, "I'm awful at this. I'm not going to help you, it'll be better that way." Everything was back at square one, and Moomintroll didn't have anymore funny stories about mushrooms. Finally, Snorkmaiden was able to make some edible pancakes, and she still got Snufkin to assist her in spreading the jam. Of course good pancakes can always lift ones spirit, and luckily these tasted great.