The Elk Mountain pilot., 1917-12-20

with crepe paper, twisted tightly. and the ends
fringed. 1t then resembled the old-fashioned
motto candies. That the motto couplet might not
be lacking, the following lines written and
inserted:
"Those Jell girls may be tart and sweet.
But I've heard that they lack spice
If of me you'll deign to eat
am sure you'll vote me NICE
Grandma made wonderful fruit cake-the
kind that lasts year, and improves with age.
This surrounded with white parchment paper,
and covered with white paper dolly, and fancy
edges. This laid carefully the waxed
paper which covered .the frosting, studded thckly
with whole hickory and butternut meats. The
whole packed into round box, made by
Myrtle's skillful fingers. To make 1t she cut two
disks of cardboard of the required size, and two
long strips of the same 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 mistletoe.
Lastly. she tied two bright scarlet ribbons about
the box, one each way She made plump bows,
and gathering the ends of the ribbons. sewed tiny
sleigh bells on them, so that the box. when moved
give 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 ap
pearance. On the inside of the cover appeared
the lines:
"Of this cake made by mother;
She says If it don't suit she'll make you another"
great generous ball of cottage cheese
wrapped in paper and packed in square box
with plenty of tissue paper in the corners. Ac-
companying II was the legend.
''If Esau had known of the cheese called cottage.
He'd have traded for that instead the pottage."
There two generous loaves of bread. one Of
"salt rising" the other yeast raised. On card
the lines:
Grandma says, when you were boy.
And eating salt rising you never could stop;
But in case you tire of the od-fashioned kind,
Here's another loaf. raised with the hop"
Packed about the loaves. and neatly wrapped
each by Itself. in parchment paper, were a dozen
little individual butter pats nodded In the form OF
a rose. Myrtle wrote:
1--WE wonder II. when you eat you'l mutter:
Aha That tastes like Old Home butterr"
The mInce pie concocted with immense care
from the careful choosing and mixing Of the In
Zredients the construction Of the faultess, haky
just touched with the falntest hint of golden
brown. This carefully packed between two
wooden plates. tied firmly together. On the top
plate written:
when is 1t true that mans mince pief
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
Its back. with Its fnt legs composed Mt Its plump
sides, 1t surely did look appetzing. The Poet
Lariat," Tim called her. wrote the following:
Not porcine sucking. but nice fat duckling
You draw for your Christmas dinner
You ne'er duck
That nicer to pluck;
We hope you will vote him winner"
Some beautiful red Brother Jonathan apples
were tucked in the corners. and glass of elder
berry jelly. These grnndma'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 elderberry jelly was
made from the ederberres that grow the
bushes by the old swimming hole.
MOTHER"
When everything was finished and the box
about ready to CO. there still remained two things
to be done. One was to put In the od-fashioned
daguerreotype of grandma with Aunt Myrtle
(taken at sixteen) standing side Of her.
and Uncle John 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 at eighteen. so Myrtle never saw
her. The other thing to be inclosed 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 arm around grand
mas neck. The resemblance between her picture
and that of Aunt Myrtle almost startling.
When grandma looked at the two pictures to-
gether she shook her head:
do really look old at thatT' she sighed
II hate to send that to Johnny. i'm afraid 1t will