A FARMER’S THANKSGIVING DINNER. 
HERE are few farmers’ families who sit down to 
formal, many-coursed dinners, even on festival 
occasions. Three courses are usually considered ample, 
and much labor is avoided which, in the greater num¬ 
ber of cases, would fall upon the mistress of the 
house or her daughters. Try this bill of fare when 
you gather the dear ones around you this year, and 
see if it is to your taste and theirs : 
MENU. 
SOUP. 
Tomato. 
MEATS. 
Roast turkey, Scalloped oysters, 
Celery dressing, Cranberry jelly. 
VEGETABLES. 
Browned potatoes, Hubbard squash, 
Creamed cauliflower. 
Celery. 
DESSERT. 
Pumpkin pie. Chocolate pudding, 
Coffee. Tea, 
Fruits and nuts. 
Tomato Soup. —To each quart of rich beef stock, 
which has been freed from fat, add one teacupful of 
strained stewed tomatoes, one saltspoonful of sugar, 
one teaspoonful each of flour and butter well mixed, 
with salt and pepper to taste. Let the whole come to 
a boil and serve with square crackers. 
Roast Turkey. —There are few cooks who do not 
know how to prepare this distinctively American dish, 
and the only suggestion which T care to offer is that 
finely minced celery be added to the dressing. The re¬ 
sult is most satisfactory to our household. It may be 
to others. 
Scalloped Oysters —A generous use of rich, creamy 
milk and butter can hardly fail to make this dish 
toothsome, if the crackers are nice and crispy and the 
oysters fresh and in sufficient supply. Dot each layer 
of rolled cracker crumbs with butter and season each 
layer of oysters with pepper and salt. Pour the milk 
or cream on top and allow the dish to stand an hour 
before baking. 
Cranberry Jelly. —Pick over and wash two quarts 
of cranberries. Add a teacupful of water and stew 
until tender; drain the fruit in a jelly bag without 
pressure. Add a pound of sugar to each pint of juice. 
Let it boil five minutes, then strain into a mould. 
The fruit which remains should be pressed through a 
coarse sieve, when more water may be added, with 
three-quarters of a pound of sugar to each pound 
of fruit. Heat to the boiling point, and the result is 
a delicious cranberry marmalade. 
Browned Potatoes. —Pass nice mealy potatoes 
through the ricer the moment they are drained. 
Heap them in a vegetable dish. Dot with bits of but¬ 
ter and brown by holding a very hot shovel over them. 
Hubbard Squash. —Wash, cut in quarters and re¬ 
move the seeds. Steam until tender and scrape from 
the shell. Season liberally with butter, pepper and 
salt, and, if too dry, add a little sweet cream. Serve 
very hot. 
Creamed Cauliflower. —Separate the cauliflower 
into sections and throw into strong salt and water to 
remove insects. Cook until tender in water which is 
slightly salted. Remove to a vegetable dish, and 
thicken a part of the water in which the cauliflower 
was cooked, with flour stirred smooth with thick 
cream. The sauce must not be too thick, but so that 
it may be poured easily. Pour it over the cauliflower, 
dot with bits of butter and serve hot. 
Pumpkin Pie. —The best pumpkin pie I ever ate was 
made with equal parts of strained pumpkin or squash 
and rich creamy milk. Salt and sweeten to taste, 
using granulated sugar. Add one egg to each pie, 
flavor with lemon and bake with one crust. 
Chocolate Pudding. —Add two tablespoonfuls of 
boiling water to two ounces of Baker’s chocolate. 
Let it melt over the fire, then add one quart of creamy 
milk, half cream is none too rich. Sweeten to taste, 
add a little salt and half a teaspoonful of vanilla. 
Last stir in the well beaten yolks of eight eggs. Bake 
until set, then cover with a meringue made from the 
whites of the eggs beaten very light, sweetened with 
powdered sugar and delicately flavored with vanilla. 
Let the meringue brown in a very quick oven. To be 
eaten cold. 
Coffee Making has been a very Bimple matter since 
the purchase of a little wire and cloth arrangement a 
year ago. The little wire frame has a hook by which 
it is hung on the side of the coffee pot. A bag is 
attached to this which reaches nearly to the bottom of 
the pot. The coffee to be used should be ground very 
fine. One tablespoonful i6 ample for each guest. The 
water required must be boiling hot. Put the coffee 
into the bag, and pour the water in after it. It will 
drain out through the coffee and the result is a deli¬ 
cious beverage perfectly clear to the last drop. 
The Fruit and Nuts are often enjoyed more .if 
served after the lamps are lighted and the story tell¬ 
ing has begun. sara a. little. 
THE WORK SIDE OF THANKSGIVING. 
ENTION a Thansgiving party, and away flies the 
housekeeper’s mind to the menu to be pre¬ 
pared ; from the central dish where : 
The turkey, quite portly with dressing 
Lies meekly awaiting the knife, 
to the nuts and bonbons of the final course. The 
whole round of adjuncts, necessary and desirable, 
unfolds itself before her, a four days’ campaign of 
mixing, measuring, stewing and baking culminating 
in a final output of energy, over almost before real¬ 
ized, and leaving, it may be, a doubt whether holidays 
are after all worth while. 
In order that, when the day’s accounts are balanced 
up, the credit side of pleasure anl satisfaction may 
exceed the debit one of work and care, sensible plan¬ 
ning and a determination to keep the real object of 
the day’s entertainment in mind, are necessary. When 
she considers the matter from a common-sense stand¬ 
point, every woman knows that no elaboration of the 
viands served can make up for a preoccupied hostess, 
with wrinkles of anxiety between her eyebrows; 
that the best of one’s every-day cooking is apt to be 
better than most fashionable, but unfamiliar novel¬ 
ties ; that most people—and men in particular—relish 
a simple, straightforward style of cooking rather 
than what might be called the fussed up dishes of the 
cooking schools, and that, above all, it is the people 
and not the food that make or mar the day. 
Not to undertake more than can be easily accom¬ 
plished in the kitchen is to leave the more vivacity for 
the parlor, for few are the country homes where the 
brunt of the labor does not fall upon the home-maker. 
The farmer is usually a free-handed, whole-souled 
man. “ Have as many ducks and turkeys and cran¬ 
berries as you like, Mary,” he says cheerfully, and 
then, perhaps, goes off to the village the day they are 
to be prepared for cooking, as unconcerned as if one had 
but to lasso a fowl upon its roost at night and lead it, 
on the day of the feast, upon the table stuffed, sea¬ 
soned and browned to a turn. If he concur with his 
wife in thinking it worth while to set up a stove in the 
north room, and looks up the missing zinc and an extra 
length of pipe with as much patience as he displays 
in helping his pretty cousin to put on her overshoes 
and find her gloves a few days later, he is a husband 
to be proud of—though the chances are that he drinks 
or is lazy, for, by the law of compensation, he really 
must possess some redeeming vice. 
But Mary got used to his ways, good and bad, long 
ago ; and though the eating and serving are of neces¬ 
sity important items in her plans, she is resolutely de¬ 
termined to enjoy the autumn festival, and to make it 
a day to which others shall look back with pleasure. 
So whether she and all the other home-makers up and 
down our land, plan to accomplish unusual results, or 
keep to a few well-tested recipes ; whether there be a 
reliable Bridget to the fore, or the little woman her¬ 
self preside both at the range and in the parlor, may 
only success and satisfaction attend the efforts of all 
who bid a guest to the day’s feast and help to make 
the good old festival of our forefathers a day for which 
to be thankful. prudence primrose. 
“ IT SHALL NOT COME NIGH THEE.” 
T is oniy when the pestilence is near at hand that 
our prayers to be delivered from it are really 
heartfelt. Conversely, when its hot breath has been 
all but upon us, and we have been delivered from it, 
it would seem that then, of all times, we should yield 
ourselves to heartfelt thanksgiving. It was predicted 
almost as a certainty that the dreaded cholera would 
invade our country during this, our year of receiving 
all nations as our guests. But the White City, with 
its enchanting towers and fountains, has been spared 
from witnessing the fearful scenes of terror and dis¬ 
tress that might so easily have turned its joy and 
beauty into mourning and heaviness. Shall we not, 
as a people, be thankful from the heart—more so in 
this Columbian year than could have been possible in 
any other—that the “noisome pestilence has n. t come 
nigh us ? ” 
Our Thanksgiving proclamation fails to mention 
this specific cause for the giving of thanks. But it 
does say: “Let generous gifts of charity for the re¬ 
lief of the poor and needy prove tne sincerity of our 
thanksgiving.” Let us prove ourselves thankful, 
whatever may be our debt in this direction 
NOT AN EXCEPTIONAL CASE. 
HAT prettily behaved children ! ” exclaimed 
my friend, Mrs. Jewett, of little Teddy and 
May Morgan, who were spending the day with me 
while their mother was on a shopping tour to the city. 
“Oh, yes ! ” I replied; “they always behave well 
when they stay alone with me, but it’s a sight to see 
them when their parents are here.” 
“ A beautiful sight, you mean ?” inquired Mrs. Mor¬ 
gan. 
“ Wait and see,” I answered, and here we were in¬ 
terrupted by Teddy, who asked permission to take 
Muggins (my pet kitten) out in the hammock, saying 
that he would be real careful not to hurt her, and by 
May, who wished to look at my stereopticon views. A 
moment later both children were happily employed, 
and so the day passed with nothing to mar our pleas¬ 
ure together : no teasing, no quarreling, no meddling 
with articles not made for little hands. 
Evening came, and with it came Mrs. Morgan, 
wearied by her long day in the c : ty. There was a wild 
rush for the door, and before she had time to step over 
the door sill, four little arms were dragging her face 
down to be kissed, her bonnet was knocked askew, 
and the various packages which she carried fell to the 
floor, while both children were noisily shouting, “ Did 
you buy me any candy ? ” “ Where’s my jackknife ? ” 
“ Did you get the silk for my dolly’s dress ? ” The 
candy was obediently brought forth. The jackknife 
was handed to Teddy, and May’s candy-bedaubed 
fingers were smoothing the shining piece of blue silk 
ere I had an opportunity to introduce my friend to 
Mrs. Morgan. The weak-minded mother acknowledged 
the introduction with a slight apology for her off¬ 
spring. The dear children missed her. They were 
always wild with delight when she returned after a 
day’s absence. 
Then she turned to me with an inquiry : “ Have the ’ 
children been good ? ” I could truthfully answer 
then, “Yes, very good,” but had she asked the ques¬ 
tion a half hour later my answer would have been a 
different one, for both children appeared to take ad¬ 
vantage of their mother’s presence to try my patience 
to the utmost. May proceeded to explore my cabinet 
which she had plainly understood was forbidden 
ground during the day. She turned a deaf ear to all 
my attempts to allure her away, until her father came 
in, when she ensconced herself in his lap, from which 
post of vantage she entertained us with reading from 
my choicest gift-books, her voice rising above our 
labored conversation. Teddy, more quietly but not 
less mischievously, tested his new knife on my parlor 
furniture, and it was only due to the constant watch¬ 
fulness of Mrs. Jewett that it escaped being hope¬ 
lessly mutilated. It is needless to say that the mother’s 
first suggestion of going home met with a quick re¬ 
sponse, that, I knew “ she must be tired.” The chil¬ 
dren’s outer garments were put on by Mrs. Jewett and 
myself as quickly as possible. 
When the door closed behind the departing family, 
Mrs. Jewett and I sank into oui* easy chairs with a 
sigh of relief, while I laughed hysterically. “ What a 
pity ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Jewett. “ I never witnessed 
such a transformation!” While I replied: “I would 
rather care for those children alone for a fortnight 
than to have their mother’s help for one day.” And 
then I wickedly soliloquized, “ Sometimes it seems as 
if it would be a blessing if half of the children in the 
world were orphans, for their parents seem to exert 
such a diabolical influence over them that when the 
children are in their company they are transformed 
into perfect imps, while we outsiders are for the time 
being cowards, and in their power.” Alice e. pinney. 
A cream of tartar baking powder. 
Highest of all in leavening strength. 
—Latest United States Government 
Report. 
Royal Baking Powder Co., 
106 Wall Street, New York. 
