The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-12-22

@
with crepe paper, twisted tightly, and the ends
frfnged. It then resembIed the oId-fashioned
motto candies That the motto or couplet might not
be lacking, the following lines were written and
inserted:
Those Jen girls may be tart and sweet,
But I've heard that they lack spice.
If of me you'll deign to eat
I am sure you'll vote 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 thfckly
with whole hickory and butternut meats The
whole was packed into a round box, made by
Myrtle's skillfuI fingers. To make it 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
d 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,
gave forth sweet musical sound.
Myrtle surveyed the box with satisfaction her
head one 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 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 4 square box,
with plenty of tissue paper in the corners Ac-
cOmpanying it was the legend:
eff 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
the lines:
Grandma says, when you were a boy,
And eating salt rising you never could stop:
But in case you tire of the old-fashioned kind,
Here's another loaf, raised with the hop"
Packed about the loaves, and neatly wrapped
each by itself, in parchment paper, dozen
little individual butter pats nodded in the form Of
a rose. Myrtle wrote:
eve wonder if when you eat, you'll mutter:
Aha That tastes like Old Home butterr"
The mince pie was concocted with immense care,
from the careful choosing and mixing of the in
gradients to the construction of faultless faky
crust just touched with the faintest hint of golden
brown This carefully packed between two.
wooden plates, tied firmly together. On the top
plate written:
when is it true that mans mnce 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 d'oeuvre of
the whole undertaking. When it was ready, lying
on its back, with its fat legs composed its plump
sides, it surely did look appetzing The "Poet
Lariat" as Tim called her, wrote the following:
Not porcine sucking. but a nice fat duckling
You draw for your Christmas dinner.
You ne'er saw duck
That was nicer to pluck;
We hope you will vote him winner"
Some beautiful red Brother Jonathan apples
were tucked in the corners, and a glass of elder
berry jelly. These were grandmaTs contribution
and she wrote, in 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? 1 wouldn't let them cut it down when
they cut the others. The elderberry Jelly was
made from the elderberries that grow on 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 on one side of her
and Uncle John on the other. This had been
taken many years before, for 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 nose
in the early picture with her 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 as old at that?" she sighed
Il hate to send that to Johnny I'm afraid 1t viii