LXX A "Pair Shower" for Alice

1 t-baking powder ¼ C-molasses 1 egg 1/3 C-milk 4 T-raisins 4 T-nuts

Mix the bread crumbs, suet, soda, cloves, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Add the raisins cut fine, and the nuts. Break the egg into the molasses, beat well, and add the milk. Mix with the first ingredients. Stir and mix thoroughly. Fill a well-buttered pudding mould one-half full. Steam one and a half hours, and serve with yellow sauce.

Yellow Sauce (Four portions) 1 egg ¼ C-powdered sugar 1 T-milk ½ t-vanilla

Beat the egg white until stiff and dry. Add the yolk and beat one minute. Add the powdered sugar and continue beating. Add the milk gradually and the vanilla. Continue beating for one minute. Serve at once over a hot pudding.

CHAPTER XCVIII

CHRISTMAS GIFTS

"S

PEAKING of Christmas gifts," said Charlotte, "wouldn't anyone be delighted to receive a little jar of your Russian dressing, Bettina?" "I'm sure I'd like it!" said Frank Dixon. "Much better than a pink necktie or a white gift book called 'Thoughts at Christmas-Tide!'" "Mary Owen makes candied orange peel for all of her friends," said Bettina, "and I think that is so nice, for hers is delicious! She saves candy boxes through the year, and all of her close friends receive the same gift with Mary's card. We all know what to expect from her, and we are all delighted, too. And you see she doesn't have to worry over different gifts for each one. I do think Christmas is growing more sensible, don't you?" "My sister in South Carolina sends out her Christmas gifts a few weeks early," said Frank. "She sends boxes of mistletoe to everyone. They seem to be welcome, too. By the way, Bob, did you and Bettina decide on your Christmas cards?" "Yes," said Bob, "and they are partly ready. But we are waiting to get a little picture of the bungalow with snow on the roof—a winter picture seems most appropriate—and the snow isn't forthcoming! The weather man seems to be all upset this year."

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"Charlotte has been making some small calendars to send out," said Frank. "She has used her kodak pictures, and I'm afraid they're mostly of me! I don't know what some of my friends will say when they see me with an apron around my neck, seeding cherries!" "They'll be surprised, anyhow," said Charlotte. "I rather like that picture myself!"

For dinner that night Bettina served: Escalloped Oysters Baked Potatoes Head Lettuce Russian Dressing Baking Powder Biscuits Apple Jelly Prune Whip Cream Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Escalloped Oysters (Four portions) 2 C-oysters 2 C-cracker crumbs 3 T-melted butter 1 t-salt ¼ t-pepper 1½ C-milk

Look over the oysters carefully and remove any particles of shell. To the melted butter add salt, pepper and cracker crumbs. Place a layer of crumbs in the bottom of a well buttered baking dish, and add the oysters and more crumbs until the dish is filled. Pour the milk over the oysters and crackers. Bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven.

Russian Dressing (Four portions) 1 C-salad dressing 1 t-chopped pimento 1 t-chopped green pepper 1 t-vinegar ½ t-paprika ¼ t-salt ½ C-olive oil ½ C-chili sauce

To the cup of salad dressing, add the oil, chili sauce, seasonings, vinegar and finely chopped vegetables. Beat two minutes. Pour over head lettuce. Prune Whip (Four portions) 1/3 lb. prunes 3 egg-whites

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1 T-lemon juice ½ C-sugar

Look over and wash the prunes. Soak for three hours in cold water. Cook until soft. Rub through a strainer, and add the sugar and lemon juice. Cook this mixture for five minutes. Beat the egg whites until very stiff, and add the prunes when cold. Pile lightly into a buttered baking dish and bake twenty minutes in a slow oven. Serve with cream.

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CHAPTER XCIX

A CHRISTMAS SHOWER

"D EAR Bettina," wrote Polly, "somehow I never do like to write letters— certainly not at this busiest time of the year!—but I simply must tell you about a luncheon that Elizabeth Carter and I gave the other day for one of our holiday brides. (Angeline Carey; do you remember her? A dear girl—rather quiet, but with plenty of good common sense.) "We had a large Christmas table (aren't they simple and effective?), with a Christmas tree in the center, strung with tiny electric lights, and hung with tinsel and ornaments. Strings of red Christmas bells stretched from the chandelier above the table to the four corners. The favors at each place were several kinds,—Santas, little Christmas trees, snow men and sleds, all of them concealing at their bases the boxes holding the salted nuts. The place-cards were simply Christmas cards. "Before the guest of honor stood a small Santa, larger, however, than any of the other Santas, and in his hands were the ends of twenty or more narrow green ribbons, each leading to a separate shower-package at the base of the tree. These packages (it was a miscellaneous shower) made an interesting-looking heap, but we didn't ask Angeline to open them until we had reached the salad course. Then she drew each one toward her by the end of a ribbon, opened it, and read the verse on the gift. You have no idea how clever some of the gifts and verses were! Margaret McLaughlin—do you remember her?—had dressed a dishmop in two tea towels, making the funniest old woman! This she introduced as Bridget, Angeline's cookto-be! One of the girls who sketches cleverly had illustrated her card with pictures of Angeline in her kitchen. "But I am forgetting our table decorations! We had furnished four rooms for Angeline, doll size, and the furniture of each was grouped along the table. Besides the living room, bedroom, dining room and kitchen, we presented Angeline and Dean with an auto (in miniature, of course), a cow, a horse, several ducks and chickens, a ferocious dog and a sleepy cat. Weren't we good to them? And lo and behold! beside the auto stood Dean himself, disguised as a little china kewpie man; while Angeline, always a lady, stood gracefully in the living room and refused to help him with his menial tasks, or to assist Nora, who was hanging out the clothes in the back yard. Angeline was a kewpie, dressed in style.

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