Chapter 16

A sucker is a round piece of strong leather. Thread a piece of string through the middle, and knot the string at the end to prevent it being pulled through. Soak the sucker in water until it is soft, and then press it carefully over a big smooth stone, or anything else that is smooth, so that no air can get in. If you and the string are strong enough, the sucker will lift great weights.

Skipjacks

The wish-bone of a goose makes a good skipjack. It should be cleaned and left for a day or two before using. Then take a piece of strong thin string, double it, and tie it firmly to the two ends of the wish-bone, about an inch from the end on each side. Take a strip of wood a little shorter than the bone, and cut a notch round it about half an inch from one end. Then slip it half way between the double string, and twist the string round and round until the resistance becomes really strong. Then pull the stick through to the notch, into which the string will settle, and tie it at each side, so that it is not likely to slip either way. A little piece of cobblers' wax must be put on the bone on the other side to that where the stick naturally touches. Pull the stick right over to stick on the wax, and lay the skipjack, stick downward, on the ground. In a little while the wax will give way, and the wish-bone will spring high into the air.

A Water-Cutter

The cut-water is best made of tin or lead, but stout cardboard or wood will serve the purpose. First cut the material into a round, and then make teeth in it like a saw. Thus:--Then bore two holes in it, as in the drawing, and thread strings through them, tying the strings at each end. Hold the strings firmly, and twist them a little. Then, by pulling at them to untwist them, the cut-water will be put in motion, first one way, while they are being untwisted, and then the other, while they twist up again. If held just over a basin of water, the notches will send spray a great distance, but you must be careful to dip them only when the cut-water is revolving away from you, or you will be soaked.

Whistles

With a sharp knife a very good whistle can be made of hazel or willow, cut in the spring or early summer. A piece of wood about three inches long should be used. Remember what an ordinary tin whistle is like, and cut the mouthpiece at a similar angle, and also cut a little nick out of the bark, in the place of the hole immediately beyond the mouthpiece in the metal instrument. Then cut all round the bark about an inch from the other end of the stick, hold the bark firmly with one hand clasped round it, and hold the inch at the opposite end firmly with the fingers of the other, and pull. The greater portion of bark should slide off quite easily. You will then have a tube of bark about two inches long, and a white stick about three inches long, with an inch of bark remaining on it. Cut from the mouthpiece end of this stick as much as exactly fits between the end and the little nick in the bark which you have already made. Shave the top until it is flat (just as in an ordinary whistle), and place it inside the bark again. Then cut off from the white part of the stick all but a quarter of an inch: fit this into the other end of the bark tube, and you ought to get a good shrill whistle. It will be better if you keep a pea inside.

Christmas--Evergreen Decorations

Getting ready for Christmas is almost as good as Christmas itself. The decorations can be either natural or artificial or a mixture of both. In using evergreens for ropes, it is best to have a foundation of real cord of the required length, and tie the pieces of shrub and ivy to it, either with string or floral wire. This prevents any chance of its breaking. For a garland or any device of a definite shape, the foundation could be a stiffer wire, or laths of wood. Ivy chains are described on page 135.

Paper Decorations

The simplest form of paper chain is made of colored tissue paper and glue. You merely cut strips the size of the links and join them one by one.

For paper flowers, paper and tools are especially made. But for the purposes of home decoration ordinary tissue paper, wire, glue, and scissors will serve well enough.

Mottoes

Mottoes and good wishes can be lettered in cotton wool on a background of scarlet or other colored linen or lining paper. Scarlet is perhaps the most cheery. Or you can make more delicate letters by sewing holly berries on to a white background; and small green letters can be made by sewing box leaves on a white background. For larger green letters and also for bordering, holly leaves and laurel leaves are good. Cotton-wool makes the best snow.

Christmas Trees.

In hanging things on the Christmas tree you have to be careful that nothing is placed immediately over a candle, nor should a branch of the tree itself be near enough to a candle to catch fire. After all the things are taken off the tree there is no harm in its burning a little, because the smell of a burning Christmas tree is one of the best smells there is. To put presents of any value on the tree is perhaps a mistake, partly because they run a chance of being injured by fire or grease, and partly because they are heavy. The best things of all are candles, as many as possible, and silver balls which reflect. On the top there should, of course, be either a Father Christmas, or a Christ child, as the Germans, who understand Christmas trees even better than we do, always have. For lighting the candles a long taper is useful, and for putting them out, an extinguisher tied to a stick.

Bran-Tubs or Jack Horner Pies

Bran-tubs or Jack Horner Pies are not so common as they used to be, but there is no better way of giving your guests presents at random. As many presents as there are children are wrapped up in paper and hidden in a tub filled with bran. This is placed on a dust-sheet, and the visitors dip their bands in and pull out each a parcel. The objection to the bran-tub is that boys sometimes draw out things more suitable for girls. This difficulty could be got over by having two tubs, one for girls and one for boys. Sometimes the ribbon of each parcel is long and falls over the edge of the dish. The boys take one color ribbon, and the girls the other, and all pull at the same time.

Philopenas

Two games with nuts and cherries may as well go at the end of this section as anywhere else. Almonds sometimes contain double kernels. These are called Philopenas, and you must never waste them by eating both yourself, but find some one to share them with. There are several ways of playing. One is "Yes or No," in which the one who first says either "yes" or "no" must pay a forfeit to the other. Another is "Give and Take," in which the one that first takes something that the other hands him is the loser. Or whichever of you first says to the other "Good morning, Philopena," on the following day, or the next time you meet, wins a present. Or this is sometimes played that whoever first answers a question put to him by the other must pay a forfeit. Of course this makes great fun in trying to invent and evade plausible questions.

Cherry Contests

Cherry-eating races can be very exciting. The players stand in a row with their hands behind them, and a number of long-stalked cherries are chosen from the basket and placed by the tip of the stalk between their teeth. At the word of command the players begin their efforts to draw the cherry up by the stalk into their mouths. All heads must be held down.

CANDY-MAKING

Utensils

For making candy you will need an enamel or earthenware saucepan; a long wooden spoon; one or two old soup-plates or dishes; a bowl, if there is any mixing to be done; a cup of cold water for testing; a silver knife; and, if you are not cooking in the kitchen, a piece of oil-cloth or several thicknesses of brown paper to lay on the table.

General Directions

Butter the dish into which the candy is to be poured before you begin to cook. To do this put a little piece of butter on a piece of clean soft paper and rub it all over the dish.

Always stir round the edge as well as the middle of the saucepan. Stir slowly but continually, for candy burns very quickly if left alone.

The flavoring should be added just before taking the saucepan off the fire.

To find out if your taffy or candy has boiled long enough, drop a little in the cup of cold water. If it at once becomes crisp and hard, it is done.

Before your candy is quite cold, mark it with a silver knife into squares. This will make it break up more easily and neatly when cold.

Barley Sugar

1 lb. powdered sugar. The white of an egg. 1/2 a pint of water. 1/2 a lemon.

Dissolve the sugar in the water, and add the well-beaten white of an egg (this must be done before the mixture is heated). Then put on the fire in a strong saucepan. Remove all scum as it rises, and when the syrup begins to look clear, take off the fire and strain through muslin. Put the syrup back into the saucepan and let it boil quickly until you find by testing it that it is done. Then add the juice of the lemon and pour on to a buttered dish. Before the mixture sets cut it into strips and twist.

Chocolate Caramels

1 tea-cup golden syrup. 1 tea-cup brown sugar. 1 tea-cup milk. 2 oz. butter. 4 oz. powdered chocolate. A pinch of salt. 16 drops vanilla.

Boil all together for half an hour, stirring continually.

Cocoanut caramels are made in the same way, except that 1 oz. of grated or desiccated cocoanut is used instead of the chocolate.

Cocoanut Cream

1-1/2 lb. granulated sugar. 4 oz. grated cocoanut.

Melt the sugar with as little water as possible. Continue to let it boil gently until the syrup begins to return to sugar again. Directly this happens put in the cocoanut and mix thoroughly. Pour the mixture into a flat dish or tin.

Cocoanut Cream (_another way_)

1 cocoanut, grated. 1 lb. granulated sugar. 1/2 a cup of cocoanut-milk. 1 oz. butter.

Put the sugar, cocoanut-milk, and butter into a saucepan. When they boil, add the cocoanut gradually. Boil for ten minutes, stirring all the time. Pour the mixture into a basin and beat till nearly cold, then turn out into a dish.

Cocoanut Drops

1/2 lb. cocoanut, grated. 1/2 lb. white sugar. The whites of 2 eggs, well beaten.

Mix well together and bake in drops on buttered paper for fifteen minutes.

Cream Caramels

1 tin Nestlé's milk. 1 lb. soft white sugar. 2 oz. butter. Vanilla.

Melt the sugar with a very little water, and when boiling add the butter and Nestlé's milk. Stir continually, as the mixture burns very easily, for fifteen minutes. Try in water to see if it will set. Add the vanilla, pour into a dish, and beat until nearly cold.

One ounce of cocoanut or 2 of grated chocolate can be used instead of vanilla to flavor the above.

Fruit Cream

1 cocoanut, grated. 1-1/2 lb. granulated sugar, moistened with a little cocoanut-milk.

Put the sugar in a saucepan and let it heat slowly. Then boil rapidly five minutes; add grated cocoanut, and boil ten minutes. Stir constantly. Put a little on a cold plate, and if it makes a firm paste, take from fire. Pour part of it into a large tin lined with greased paper; and add to what remains in the saucepan, chopped blanched almonds, candied cherries, nuts, etc. Pour this over the other cream, and cut in bars.

Pop-Corn

The corn has to be "popped" over a clear fire in a little iron basket with a long handle. The corn is put in the basket and shaken continually, and in time each grain pops suddenly and becomes a little irregular white ball. These can be eaten with salt, or rolled in a sweet syrup (colored and flavored as you like it best) made of 1/2 lb. of white sugar boiled for ten minutes with a very little water.

The Plainest Toffee

3 oz. butter. 1 lb. brown sugar.

Stir until done.

Another Toffee

1 lb. raw sugar. 1/2 lb. butter. 2 small tablespoonfuls of syrup. The juice of half a lemon. Half a teaspoonful of powdered ginger.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and then add the sugar, syrup, and ginger. Stir continually, adding a little lemon juice every now and then. Boil for ten minutes, and then test in cold water.

Two ounces of blanched and split almonds can be added to the above. The almonds should either be mixed with the toffee just before taking it off the fire, or else a well-buttered dish should be lined with them and the toffee poured over.

To blanch almonds, put them in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. Put a saucer over the bowl to keep the steam in, and leave for about three minutes. Then take out the almonds one by one and rub off their brown skins between your fingers.

Everton Toffee

1 lb. brown sugar. 1 small cup of water. 1/2 lb. of butter.

Boil the water and sugar together very gently until the sugar is melted. Then add the butter and boil all together for half an hour.

Molasses Candy

1/2 lb. molasses. 1/2 lb. brown sugar. 2 oz. butter.

Boil all together for half an hour.

Nut Candy

1 pint of chopped nuts. 1/2 lb. brown sugar. 3 oz. butter. Juice of one lemon. Tablespoonful of water.

Boil everything, except the nuts, for twenty minutes, stirring all the time. Test, and if done, add the nuts. Stir them in thoroughly and pour off into a dish.

Nut Candy (_another way_)

1 lb. brown sugar. 6 oz. butter. 3 oz. chopped nuts.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the sugar. Boil from ten to fifteen minutes and then add the nuts. Walnuts, Brazil nuts, almonds, or peanuts (which have been baked) may be used.

Peppermint Candy

1 lb. syrup. 2 oz. butter. 1 small teaspoonful of essence of peppermint.

Boil the butter and syrup very gently until the mixture hardens when tested in water. Add the peppermint and pour into well-buttered dishes.

Stuffed Dates, etc.

Very dainty and good sweets can be made without cooking at all. All that is necessary is to have a certain amount of cream with which to stuff or surround stoned dates, cherries, and French plums, or walnuts and almonds.

The cream is made in this way. Put the white of an egg and one tablespoonful of water into a bowl, and into this stir gradually 1 lb. of confectioner's sugar (confectioner's sugar or "icing" is the only kind that will do), working it very smooth with a spoon. This will make a stiff paste, which can be moulded into whatever shape you please. The cream can then be divided into different portions, and each portion flavored as you like best. A few drops of vanilla or lemon juice, a little grated cocoanut or chocolate, or some pounded almonds, make excellent flavorings. Part of it can be colored pink with cochineal, or green with spinach-coloring.

When this is done, stone some dates, French plums, or raisins, or blanch some almonds and slit them in two, or have ready a number of the dried walnuts which can be bought at any grocer's. Only the perfect halves must be used. Form some of the cream into little balls and put it between two walnut halves or two almond halves, or stuff the other fruit with it. Trim all the sweets very neatly with a knife and roll them in granulated sugar. This is prettier when it has been colored pink or green, but there is no necessity to do so.

To color the sugar, mix about 1 oz. with a few drops of green or pink coloring; dry it thoroughly, and, if the grains are not quite free, put the sugar between some paper and roll it, or crush with an iron.

Another richer mixture for filling dates, etc., can be made as follows:--Mix 1/2 lb. of ground almonds with 1 oz. of ground pistachios. Beat the whites of 3 eggs to a stiff froth and add the almonds and 1/2 lb. of confectioner's sugar. Color with green. Almonds can be bought already ground.

GARDENING

Introductory

Although young America is growing more and more fond of out of doors, the lovely old occupation of gardening is less a favorite than formerly: and this is a great pity, for if one loves flowers, nothing so repays labor as gardening. Nor is it necessary to have a large tract of ground to cultivate. Indeed a tiny piece, well tended, is both more interesting and more successful. A corner of a city back-yard--even a window-box can be a source of never-failing entertainment; although of course a little plot of rich earth in one part of a lawn or country garden, lends itself to greater and more extensive plans. The important thing about growing plants is to like to do it. If you are impatient of routine and neglectful you should not be intrusted with plants any more than with animal pets, for they are both entirely dependent on your care.

It is your business, as a gardener, to know everything you can about your flowers. A gardener should be able to recognize seeds as well as seedlings; to know what treatment each flower likes best; and to exercise a special care for tender plants which need protection until there is no longer any danger of frost. The beauty of a flower depends very much upon its content. Many flowers need particular soils; some need dry soil, some moisture, some shade, and some sun; and the gardener, who is a kind of mother to the flowers, will have to remember all those things. In return, the flowers, which have a real sense of gratitude to those who care for them tenderly, will do their best to grow beautiful.

It is best to begin with a few flowers and to learn all that one can about these. Annuals will scarcely ever fail if carefully sown in good soil. In making your choice, choose so that you will have flowers from spring to autumn. Perennial plants are the most satisfactory of all to grow; for once planted they need only a very little attention and increase in size each year. Bulbs produce some of the most beautiful flowers and are very easy to grow. But great care must be taken not to dig into them after their blossoms have died down.

Besides those flowers for the growing of which directions are hereafter given there are many tender ones which must be raised in frames. This is a part of gardening which can well be left until later and upon which instructions can be found in any more advanced book on horticulture.

Color in the Garden

In arranging a garden, select flowers which will keep it full of blossom from May to October, and remember when planting and sowing that some colors are more beautiful together than others. The color arrangement of a garden is always difficult, but one must learn by experience. Scarlet and crimson, crimson and blue, should not be put together, and magenta-colored flowers are never satisfactory. Whites and yellows, and whites and blues, are always suitable together, and for the rest you must please yourself.

The Use of Catalogues

A good catalogue gives illustrations of most flowers, and in many cases its cultural directions are very helpful. As an extension of the notes that follow nothing could be more useful than two or three catalogues issued by good growers.

Gardening Diaries

It is a good thing for a gardener to keep a diary. At the beginning of the book he would make a plan of the garden, to scale: that is to say, allowing one inch, or more, in the plan for every foot of bed. In this plan would be marked the position of the bulbs and perennial plants. The diary would take note of everything that happened in the garden. The sowing of seeds would be recorded; also when the seedlings first appear; when they are thinned out, and when they blossom: in fact, everything to do with the life of the plants. A little collection of drawings of seedlings would be of great use in helping to distinguish them another year. At the end of the book might be written the names of any plants that the owner would like to have, or any special information about the culture of a plant, or the description of some arrangement which had been admired in another garden.

Flower-Shows

Where several children have gardens in the same big garden, or the same neighborhood, a flower-show is very interesting to hold now and then. To do this it is needful first to find some one willing to act as judge, and--if agreeable--to give several small prizes in addition to certificates of merit. The different things for which prizes are offered will depend, of course, upon what the competitors can grow. There might be prizes for different flowers, for collections of flowers, and for lettuces or radishes, if there are enough competitors who grow such things. But the most important prize would go perhaps to the owner of the best-kept garden. Another for the best arrangement of bunches of flowers, garden and wild, might lead to some very pretty bouquets.

Tools

For simple gardening the following tools are needed:--spade, trowel, hoe, rake, watering-can with a fine rose, syringe. They should all be strong and good. Besides these tools you will need either wooden labels or other home-made means of marking seeds, some strong sticks to use as supports for tall-growing plants, and tape to tie them up with. A pair of gloves--any old ones will do--is very necessary.

Watering

Plants should never be watered when the sun is shining on them. Early morning in spring, and late afternoon or early evening in summer, is the best time. It is best to water with water which has had the chill taken from it by standing in the sun or in the house. In watering seedlings and tiny plants, keep the rose on your watering-can; but with big plants it is better to take off the rose and pour the water gently, waiting every now and then for it to sink in round their roots. If the ground is very dry and baked, break up the surface of it round the plants with a rake, or push a fork carefully into the earth. This will help the water to sink in.

Water very regularly during hot and dry weather. It is very hard on your plants to give them a splendid drink one day and to forget all about them for a week.

Ferns should have a gentle spray bath every afternoon if you want to keep them fresh and green, and all leaves look the brighter for a shower from your watering-can.

Perennial plants, annuals, and rose-trees will greatly benefit if watered with slop-water while they are flowering.

Wall Pockets

If your garden is very small, but is against a sunny wall, the growing room can be increased by fixing a number of pockets, made of wood or of flower-pots, against the wall. These should be filled with good soil, and in them wallflowers, pinks, bulbs of different kinds, Wandering Jew, and some varieties of wild-flowers, etc., can be planted.

Borders

The first thing to do when a plot has been given to you, is to mark it off clearly with a border. There are several ways of doing this. Gardens are sometimes bordered with escallop shells, which are neat enough but seem rather out of place among flowers. Tiles make another tidy artificial border; but the best is made of natural rough stones from six to twelve inches long. These stones, which should be sunk into a groove, are soon covered with patches of green moss, and if between their irregular ends you drop a few seeds of low growing annuals, such as candytuft; or plant little pieces of thyme, blue forget-me-not, or any kind of rockfoil or stonecrop, the border will become one of the prettiest things in the garden. If you prefer a growing boundary, a very nice stiff little hedge can be made by sowing endive in a line all round the garden, and, after allowing it to run to seed, cutting and trimming it. But of course there is no natural border to compare with box; but to get a good box hedge is a tedious matter.

Annuals

The seeds of all annuals can be sown from March until June according to the locality. Any one in the neighborhood who has gardened for some years can tell you when to plant better than any catalogue. The seeds of favorite flowers should be sown several times at intervals of a fortnight, so that you may have a succession of them through summer and autumn.