Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1873-11-19
Youths Column.

COUSIN JACKS CAKE.-Before JacE
sailed for Singapore, his aunt Alice
made him, as she usually does. a couple
of loaves of nice fruit cake. / couldn't
tell you the number of good things she
mixed up in her ample earthen bowl
but i know that although there was
plenty of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg,
she did not use any of the caraway and
ginger Harry brought her in his eager.
ness to help, nor so much as sprinkling
of that volcanic pepper he had told
Madge about.
''Can't / do something ?" asked Harry,
who very much wanted finger in cou.
sin jack cake.
Yes, you may pound the mace"
| Then Jack, hearing the noise, and
getting-I suspect-a sniff of spicy fra
/ GRANGE that must have been slightly
! familiar to him, threw down the morn
! ing paper, and coming ont into the
kitchen, offered his services also.
Aunt Alice laughed.
II won't trust you to stone the
raisins, she said "buti if you'll promise
not to use the same blade of your knife
with which you cut tobacco, I'll let you
chip the citron for me-"
"What are you about, Hal" asked
Jack. You're making considerable
noise for small boy, seems to me-"
"Oh, I'm smashing something" said
Harry. ut smells like nutmeg, but it
don't look like IT."
"Mace, eh? Well it has a good right
to smell like nutmeg. It Is nutmeg"
mo it isn't % replied impulsive
Harry, with more promptness than
politeness' Mother keeps the nut
megs all alone in box by themselves. +"
Harry !" said his mother, reproy-
ingly, 81 do wish ycu would get over
your very bad habit of contradicting
people : especially those older than
yourself. Cousin Jack wouldn't make
the statement he did ignorantly. He
knows great deal more about spices
than you do"
Il was going to tell you, Hal, bow
mace grows," Jack went on. You'd
like to see grove of nutmeg trees, I'm
certain. They're handsome, can tell
you."
SIS mace the bark of the tree ?" asked
Aunt Alice.
"No," said Jack 'It is part Of the
fruit, which grows to about the size of
an average pear, and has a smooth, thick
yellow rind, white inside, and when ripe
cracking open everywhere among the
thick, dark green. glossy leaves, and
showing the deep red coat of the kernel.
That is mace"
'tAnd you peel of the mace and there's
rha oil
about as fine polish on it as you can
get with Day & Martin and q good
brush. Inside of that is your specked,
brown, powdery nutmeg. And the tree
1t grows on can't be bea.. It's an ever
green, with a dense foliage, starting
almost from the ground, and making e
splendid cone twenty to twenty-five feet
high. Aunt Alice it would do you good
to walk through one OF those plGnta-
tions-only you'd have to take i. early
IN the morning, or wait till evening
for when the sun shines in Singapore it
bakes as well as Shines"
And then Jack told abou.the banyans
and cocoa-palms the rambutan and
custard-apple, pomegranate, DURAN and
mango the immense jack-fruit, weigh
ing sometimes fifty or sixty pounds
the plantain and guava-for they grow
In the East Indies as well as the West
the tamarind, sour-sop and jambu; the
bread-fruit, papaya, blimbing, and Ian
sch; the luscious pine-apples, and that
prince of all natural delicacies, the
mangosteen, which l believe is found
nowhere but in the Malay peninsula
and on the adjacent islands.
1t is about as large as q common
apple, and looks quite like some of the
red varieties, only perhaps it is more
brown than red. The rind is a quarter
Of an inch thick, hard on the outside,
but soft within, its juice being astrin-
gent. / imagine the fruit is scalloped
something like cantelcpe or musk
melon, only the number of ridges varies
from four to eight or nine because
Jack says that when the rind is divided
transversely, and you take of the upper
part, the pulp is in curved sections,
each enclosing its seed, and easily re-
moved, a section at a time with the
fork. The pulp is white, sometimes
tinged with lovely purple, and melts
in the mouth the realization of every
thing that is delicious
Aunt Alice said it was delightful to
hear of these exquisite dainties, but
very tantalizing whereupon Jack in
sisted that is was more tantalizing to
think of them, having once tasted them
and become familiar with their luscious
properties and it seems to me he was
right.
Well, the cake was baked-two nice
loaves OF it coming out of the oven in
about three hours time, with as rich a
brown as could be desired-and then it
was garnished with heavy frosting,
and set away in the pantry. The next
day it was packed in tin box and Jack
took it to sea with him. When he told
aunt Alice that he should never eat
morsel of it without blessing God that
there was somebody in America to love
him, the tears came into her eyes.
"And," ne added, "your cake shall
make some OF my shipmates think Of
their homes, too, before we round the
Cape of Good Hope"
That's right, Jack" said uncle
George; ''and I'm inclined to think it
will do your hearts all more good than
it will your stomachs."
'Oh, never fear for u.s." returned
Jack Eve salts have better digestion
than you landsmen and III divide it
up so that none of US shall be sick.
You won't care, I hope, aunt Alice ?"
mo; make the most of it you can.
1t is yours to do with just as you please;
and If you'd rather distribute your hap
piness than keep it all to yourself. why
then you shall and welcome.-Littis
Corporal.
TRY.-Can't do it sticks in the mud,
but Try soon drsgs the wagon out of the
rut. The fox said Try, and he got
away from the hounds when they almost
snapped at him. The bees says Try,
and turned flowers into honey. the
squirrel said Try, and up he went tothe
top OF beech tree. The snowdrop said
Try, and bloomed in the cold SHOWS of
winter. The sun said Try, and the
spring soon threw Jack Frost out OF the
saddle. The young lark said Try, and