"Didn't you ever have ice cream there?" asked Russ. "Oh, once in a while. But it wasn't at all the kind Norah can make. Sure she's a wonder at ice cream!" "And we're going to have thunder-and-lightning cake, too!" added Rose. "Well, I don't know what kind that is, but it sounds good on a Fourth of July," said Jerry with a laugh. "I hope it doesn't explode when I eat it, though, like a ham sandwich did once." "Did a ham sandwich explode?" asked Russ, who always liked to hear the old soldier tell army stories. "Well, sort of," answered Jerry. "It was over in the Philippines. I was eating my sandwich, and some of the soldiers were firing at the enemy, and the enemy was firing at us. And a shell came pretty close to where I was sitting. It went off with a bang, and a piece of the shell hit the sandwich I was just going to bite." "It's a mercy the shell didn't hit you," said Mrs. Bunker. "Part of it did--my hand that held the meat and bread," explained Jerry. "But it's good I wasn't biting the sandwich at the time, or I might have lost my head. However, here comes the thunder-and-lightning cake. Now we can see what it is." Norah came out of the kitchen with two heaping plates, and, at the sight of them, the six little Bunkers said: "Oh! Ah! Oh!" There were six "Ohs" and six "Ahs!" as you can imagine; one for each boy and girl. "Is this thunder-and-lightning cake?" asked Russ. "That's what it is," answered Norah. "It's the first time I've made it in a long while. I hope you'll like it." "Sure they can't help it if you made it!" chuckled Jerry, who was exceedingly fond of Norah. "Go 'long with you!" she told him, laughing. "It does look just like thunder, it's so dark!" said Russ, biting into a slice of the cake. "And where's the lightning?" asked Rose. "That's the pink part," answered the cook. "You see I take some chocolate-cake dough, and mix it up with white-cake dough, and then I put in some dough that I've colored pink, and mix that through in lines and streaks, and that's the lightning," explained Norah. And when the cake had been baked in this way, and cut, each slice showed a white part, a dark brown part and a pink, jagged streak here and there, as lightning is sometimes seen to streak through the dark clouds. "Oh, it's awful good!" cried Laddie, as he took a second slice to eat with the home-made ice cream. "Will it make a noise like a fire-cracker?" asked Vi, who always had some sort of question ready. "It won't make a noise unless you drop it, darlin'," said Jerry with a laugh. "Then it'll go 'thump!'" "Don't you dare talk that way about my cake!" said Norah. "The idea of sayin' it would make a noise if it fell." "I was only joking" rejoined the former soldier. "The cake is so light, Norah, that I'll have to tie strings to it to keep it from goin' up to the sky like a balloon!" "Go 'long with you!" laughed Norah, but she seemed pleased all the same.