Part 26 (1/2)

Beat the eggs without separating them, and stir in the sugar, flour, and salt. Add the nuts last, and spread the whole in a thin layer on a well-greased tin; bake ten minutes, or till the top is brown. Cut into squares and take quickly from the tin; lay on a platter till cold.

Jack thought he could crack and even pick out nuts without injuring his dignity, so he went to work on a panful of pecans, and, by the time Mildred and Brownie were ready to chop them, they were all ready and waiting. Before long the little cakes were in the oven and out again, crisp and hot; almost too good to be saved, the girls thought, and so did Jack. But they knew there would not be time to-morrow to make any others, so they had to keep these, and when they were cold, shut them up in the cake-box.

”Now I think you have cooked enough for to-day,” said their mother, after she had tasted one small crumb of their cakes and p.r.o.nounced them perfect.

”But, Mother, what about the salad?” asked Brownie.

”Oh, do you really think we need salad with all these good things?”

”Honestly, I don't think we need it at all,” said Mildred; ”but I do think it would be nice to have it, because it's a party.”

”Very well! But what can we have? Lettuce, and tomatoes, and other fresh vegetables are really out of season, or, at any rate, we cannot get them in this town; and yet we ought to have a green salad, because, of course, n.o.body could possibly eat chicken or lobster salad after a Thanksgiving dinner.”

”I could!” called Jack, from the next room; but n.o.body paid any attention.

”Well, here is an idea--string-bean salad. That is very easy to make, and very good, too, and we can make it out of canned beans and n.o.body will know it. I will tell you how to make it now, because I'll be so busy to-morrow, and then, in the afternoon, you can get it ready quickly.”

STRING-BEAN SALAD

1 pint of string beans, cooked and cold.

2 hard-boiled eggs.

A little lettuce, if you have it.

French dressing.

Drain the beans well and sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper. If they are canned, let them lie on a platter for at least an hour. Arrange them on a few white lettuce leaves on plates, or omit the lettuce and use a few yellow celery leaves; put two strips of hard-boiled egg on the plate, one on each side of the beans, and, just before serving, pour a little French dressing over all. This salad must be very cold.

”Now, certainly, that is all,” said Mother Blair, as they wrote this down, ”and I'm sure n.o.body will go home hungry after such a supper as that!”

”And what hot drink are you going to have, Mother?”

”Oh, I almost forgot that. I planned something which is especially Thanksgivingy, too. It is really and truly what the Pilgrim Fathers are supposed to have made for Thanksgiving Day out of wild grapes; but I am sure they had no lemons or spices, so it could not have been quite as good as this. We will have this with the turkey and oysters for the supper, and no coffee or cocoa.”

MULLED GRAPE-JUICE

1 quart of bottled grape-juice.

1 pint of water.

1 cup of sugar.

2 lemons.

2 sticks of cinnamon.

1 dozen cloves.

Put the spices in a piece of thin cloth and tie this up like a bag; put it in a saucepan with the grape-juice, sugar, and water, and let it slowly heat till it steams; stir well and let it stand on the back of the fire for ten minutes. Add the juice of the lemons and the thin yellow rind of one (you can peel this off in a strip and drop it in); bring it all to the boiling-point, take out the lemon-peel, taste it, and, if not sweet enough, add more sugar. Serve very hot.

The next evening, just as it grew dark, Mildred and Jack hung a sheet before the double doors of the library, and they, with some of the cousins, gave a funny shadow-play, ”Young Lochinvar,” with a rocking-horse for the ”steed,” and a clothes-basket for a boat, and their father read the poem as they acted it. When everybody had stopped laughing at it, the junior Blairs brought in the supper (the oysters had been quietly cooking while they played), and arranged it on the library table. Everything was hot and delicious, or cold and delicious, and the mulled grape-juice was almost the best of all. After everything had been eaten up, they all gathered around the fire and told stories. At last, when the visitors had gone and bedtime had come for the Blairs, Mildred said impressively:

”Now _that_ was what I call a Thanksgiving Day without a flaw!”