The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1917-12-21


be lacking, the following lines We're written and
inserted:
"Those Je girls may he tart and sweet
But I've heard that they lack spice.
If of me you'll deign to eat
am you'll vote me NICE"
Grandma made wonderful fruit cake-the
kind that lasts year. and improves with age.
This was surrounded with white parchment paper,
and covered with white paper dolly, and fancy
edges. This laid carefully over the waxed
paper, which covered the frosting, studded thckly
with whole hickory and butternut meats. The
whole packed into a round box, made by
Myrtles skful fingers. To make it she cut two
disks of cardboard Of the required size, and two
long strips of the cardboard the height of
the cake the other narrower, for the cover. she
bound the edges together with gummed tape and
covered their junction with narrow strips of gold
paper. Then she neatly covered top and sides
with Christmas paper all holly and mistleoe.
Lastly, she tied two bright scarlet ribbons about
the box, each way. She made plump bows
and, gathering the ends of the ribbons, sewed tiny
sleigh bells them, so that the box, when moved
gave forth sweet musical sound.
Myrtle surveyed the box with satisfaction, her
head side
"You ought to please she said. you appeal
to the eye, the ear, and the palate
The box certainly did present an imposing APP
pearance. On the inside of the cover appeared
the lines
"Of course this cake was made by mother
She says if it don't suit, she'll make you another"
great generous ball of cottage cheese was
wrapped in paper and packed in square box
with plenty of tissue paper in the corners. Ac
companyng it was the legend
"If Esau had known of the cheese called cottage,
He'd have traded for that, instead of the pottage.
There were two generous loaves of bread, one of
salt rising" the other yeast raised. On card
were the lines:
"Grandma says. when you were boy,
And eating salt rising you never could stop;
But in you tire of the old-fashioned kind,
Here's another loaf raised with the hop
Packed about the oaves and neatly wrapped,
each by itself, in parchment paper, dozen
little individual butter pats, nodded in the form of
Myrtle wrote:
1--WE wonder If, when you eat, you'll mutter:
AHA That tastes like Old Home butter!".
The mince pie was concocted with immense care,
from the careful choosing and mixing of the in
gradients to the construction of the fauess, haky
crust just touched with the faintest hint of golden
brown. This was carefully packed between two
wooden plates, tied firmly together On the top
plate was written:
when is it true that a mans mince pie?
Cannot you take the hint?
Why mans Mint Spy of course, you know.
When he acts as a spy In the mint
The duck was. of course the chef doeuvre of
the whole undertaking. When it was ready, lying
on its back, with its fat legs composed at its plump
sides, IT surely did look appetizng. The "Poet
Lariat," as Tim called her. wrote the following
mot porcinc suclng hut nice fat ducllng
You draw for your Christmas dinner.
You ne'er duck
That nicer to pluck
We hope you will vote him q winner"
Some beautiful red Brother Jonathan apples
tucked in the corners, and glass Of elder
berry jelly These grandma's contribution,
and she wrote, in a somewhat trembling hand, the
following note:
Dear Johnny
"These apples came off from the tree where you
fell and broke your leg that time. Do you re-
member? l wouldn't let them cut 1t down when
they cut the Others The ederberry jelly
made from the elderberres that grow the
bushes by the old swimming hole.
MOTHER"
When everything finished and the box
about ready to go, there still remained two things
to be done. One to put in the old-fashioned
daguerreotype of grandma with Aunt Myrtle
(taken at sixteen) standing one side of her,
and Uncle John on the other. This had been
taken many years before, for a relative, and had
been sent away, and its existence forgotten. Myr-
tie had been named for her aunt and she looked
very much as the latter had done at her age. Aunt
Myrtle had died Mt eighteen, Myrtle never saw
her. The other thing to be Enclosed was the anna
teur photograph of grandma and the present
Myrtle. She had posed in imitation Of the pose
In the early picture, with her around grand
mas neck The resemblance between her picture
and that Of Aunt Myrtle was almost startling.
When grandma looked Mt the two pictures to-
gether she shook her head
DO really look as old at that7 she sighed.
Il hate to send that to Johnny. I'm afraid 1t will