To husband Henry, Minnie can do no wrong--and his willingness to overlook her culinary mishaps eventually brings the elderly couple an unexpected, unneeded, altogether extraneous reward. This little book is indeed a grab bag of hoary commonplaces: an old couple that lives contentedly in the woods; a wife distracted by hummingbirds and such--so that she forgets what she's putting into her pie or cake; a pair of squabbling sisters and their exasperated mother (""on our way to the King's ball""). . . plus the jewels they're squabbling over which, when Henry actually eats Minnie's latest disaster-of-a-cake, become the old couple's to keep. (The snotty sisters had bet he wouldn't touch it.) It's all put together about as casually as Minnie puts pepper instead of cinnamon on the apples for Henry's pie.