She is past mistress in the art of making cream puffs and it would break her heart if anyone else here could make them as well.

I wonder if Susan tampered--but no, I won't suspect her of such a thing.
"Miranda Pryor spent an afternoon here a few days ago, helping me cut out certain Red Cross garments known by the charming name of 'vermin shirts.' Susan thinks that name is not quite decent, so I suggested she call them 'cootie sarks,' which is old Highland Sandy's version of it.
But she shook her head and I heard her telling mother later that, in her opinion, 'cooties' and 'sarks' were not proper subjects for young girls to talk about.

She was especially horrified when Jem wrote in his last letter to mother, 'Tell Susan I had a fine cootie hunt this morning and caught fifty-three!' Susan positively turned pea-green.
'Mrs.Dr.dear,' she said, 'when I was young, if decent people were so unfortunate as to get--those insects--they kept it a secret if possible.

I do not want to be narrow-minded, Mrs.Dr.dear, but I still think it is better not to mention such things.' "Miranda grew confidential over our vermin shirts and told me all her troubles.

She is desperately unhappy.