822 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 8 
From Day to Day. 
DAME NATURE’S CHILDREN. 
Dame Nature calls her children home 
When Time has ended their recess. 
They come to her across the foam 
From garden, close and wilderness, 
The spotless children of the snow, 
When April smiles along the year; 
The merry leaves and butterflies 
When gray November shuffles near. 
Dame Nature calls her children home; 
They do not die, or melt, or freeze— 
They do not cry to up and roam, 
But nestle close to her kind knees— 
She holds them in a soft embrace 
Behind the arras of the sun. 
The ice-folk read in her clear face 
Of north lights, till July is done. 
And then they see the meadows change, 
They mark the willow fingers turn— 
From their high windows they look down 
When maple hillsides crimson burn. 
And then she lets them go again— 
Her Winter children—white and free, 
And all the green souls of the leaves 
Come home to slumber on her knee. 
—The Independent. 
* 
There is no doubt that many of the 
three-minute breakfast foods are indi¬ 
gestible for the want of more thorough 
cooking. An experienced doctor re¬ 
ferred to one dyspeptic patient as suffer¬ 
ing the effect of a diet of bill-poster’s 
paste, and certainly many cereal foods 
answer to this description. Oats are 
especially improved by this long cook¬ 
ing. As they are very often served, they 
have a decidedly raw flavor, and are dis- 
couragingly indigestible. 
* 
A new convenience is an asbestos pad 
for covering dining tables. This in¬ 
sures absolute protection for the top of 
the table, as hot dishes may be placed 
anywhere upon it. It is light and flex¬ 
ible, easily folded away when not in 
use. Small asbestos table mats are 
often used to place under hot dishes, 
and we also like to use a few stove mats 
of the same non-conducting material. 
They serve to check too-rapid cooking, 
or to prevent susceptible materials from 
“catching” on the bottom of the sauce¬ 
pan. 
* 
A friend asks us to descriDe pulled 
bread. It is made from ordinary white 
bread; Mrs. Rorer says it should be 24 
hours’ baked, but according to tne Eng¬ 
lish mode it should be fresh and warm 
from the oven. Cut off the crust, and 
pull the loaf into lengtnwise strips. 
Place the strips on a piece of paper in 
a pan, and put in the oven. For a i.ew 
minutes leave the oven door open, to 
let off moisture; then close it, and per¬ 
mit the bread to stay .n the oven until a 
golden brown. Zweiback is made in the 
same way except that the bread is sliced 
instead of pulled. Both pulled bread 
and zweiback are more readily digested 
than ordinary soft bread, and are re¬ 
commended for invalids. English peo¬ 
ple often serve pulled bread with cheese 
and salad. 
* 
Sun-dried prawns from the Gulf of 
Mexico are among the articles now of¬ 
fered by many fancy grocers or deli¬ 
catessen stores. These miniature lob¬ 
sters are great favorites with the 
Chinese, and in southern China they are 
dried in large quantities. Chinese 
sailors noticed that the Gulf prawns 
were large and well-flavored, and they 
carried the news to their countrymen. 
The result was that the Chinese organ¬ 
ized several Gulf settlements, where the 
prawns are collected at low tide, washed, 
boiled, shelled, salted, and dried in the 
sun, after which they will keep for 
months. The consumption of these des- 
sieated prawns is not confined to the 
Chinese trade; they are used in various 
relishes, as they swell out to their orig¬ 
inal dimensions after soaking over 
night. 
* 
Some time ago reference was made in 
Hope Farm Notes to some dissatisfaction 
with the home-cured ham. A reader in 
3648 Girl's Costume. 
6 to I 2 years. 
Tennessee sends her recipe for curing 
meat, which, she says, has been used by 
three generations with complete satis¬ 
faction. For 100 pounds of meat, beef or 
ham, the following proportions are 
used; Four quarts of salt, four gallons 
water, four ounces saltpeter, one pint 
of molasses or two pounds of brown 
sugar. Boil and skim; turn on beef 
hot; on hams cold. Rub each piece of 
meat with salt before packing. Hams 
may be smoked after being in pickle two 
weeks, or may remain in the brine. 
• 
*A veil is a very perishable acces¬ 
sory to dress, especially when put away 
carelessly after wearing. It will be 
noticed that, in the stores, veiling is 
smoothly folded over light boards of 
the proper width. This gives an idea. 
Secure a piece of heavy cardboard the 
width of a veil, and about six inches 
across. Cover with a fold of cotton bat¬ 
ting on each side, which may be scented 
with sachet powder if desired. Over 
the batting put a cover of China silk or 
other smooth material, neatly over¬ 
handed around the edge. When the 
veil is taken off it should be neatly 
folded around this holder, pinned out. 
if necessary, along the edges, and it will 
retain its freshness much longer than if 
carelessly folded. 
The Rural Patterns. 
The little girl’s frock figured is very 
simple and childish, and yet embodies 
some of the newest ideas. The pattern 
is shown with a fitted yoke and under¬ 
sleeves, but if made with low neck and 
upper sleeves only it can be worn very 
conveniently with a guimpe. The frock 
illustrated is made of pastel blue cash- 
mere, trimmed with black ribbon velvet. 
The waist is made over a fitted lining 
and closes at the centerback. The yoke 
is faced on, as indicated in the pattern, 
and the waist proper is arranged over 
the lower portion. Concealing the seam 
and connecting the two is a smoothly 
fitted bertha edged with a quilling or 
soft blue ribbon and trimmed with 
bands of black velvet. At the neck is 
a standing collar of the embroidered 
mousseline edged with a quilling of 
ribbon that matches the bertha. The 
sleeves fit snugly at the upper por¬ 
tion and terminate in pointed turn¬ 
over cuffs, just below the elbows. 
The lower portion, or under-sleeves 
of mousseline, are made in bishop 
style, with wristbands of the em¬ 
broidered mousseline and ribbon quil¬ 
ling falling over the hand. The skirt 
is cut with a gored front and two cir¬ 
cular portions, the fullness at the back 
being arranged in gathers or a double 
inverted pleat as preferred. To make 
this costume for a girl of eight years 
of age 4% yards of material 22 inches 
wide, or 2% yards 44 inches wide will be 
required, with y 2 yard of embroidery 
for collar and yoke, and % yard of 
lawn for undersleeves. The pattern No. 
3648 is cut in sizes for girls of 6, 8, 10 
and 12 years of age. Price of pattern 10 
cents from this office. 
The wrapper figured is made of chal- 
lis, and trimmed with Liberty satin and 
Russian lace. The lining is fitted by 
single bust darts (which, if intended 
for invalid or maternity wear, may have 
eyelets worked on their edges, and be 
laced instead of stitched together) un¬ 
der arm gores, and a curving center 
seam in back. The upper part of the 
front and back lining is faced to square 
yoke depth. The full fronts are gather- 
eu and applied over the lining to the 
edge of yoke, and the back is arranged 
in a stylish double box pleat, which is 
attached to the lower edge of back yoke 
and falls in graceful folds to the lower 
edge. The' collar, which curves high in 
the back, closes in center front, and the 
closing may be made invisibly or with 
buttons and buttonholes, as preferred. 
The two-piece sleeves are correct in 
shape, and the pretty pointed epaulettes 
that are sewed on over the shoulaers, at 
the yoke outline, stand out stylishly 
over the tops. The wrists are simply 
trimmed on the edge with a band of 
quilled ribbon. A wrapper in this style 
can be appropriately made in lawn, 
percale or gingham, with all-over em¬ 
broidery, insertion and edging for trim¬ 
ming. Made in foulard or China silk, 
a combination of contrasting color or 
fine tucking, with trimming of lace, will 
be attractive. Cashmere or lightweight 
wool goods will trim daintily with rib¬ 
bon or irregular insertion. To make 
this wrapper in the medium size will 
require 6*4 yards of cashmere or other 
material 44 inches wide, 10 Vi yards 32 
inches wide, or 12 yards 22 inches wide. 
To trim as represented % yards each 
of satin and all-over lace, 18 inches 
wide, is needed for the yoke collar and 
bretelles, with 7 yards of ribbon for 
quilling and 2^ yards ior girdle. The 
pattern No. 3582 is cut in sizes for 32, 
34, 36, 38, 40 and 42 inches bust meas¬ 
ure, and costs 10 cents from this office. 
Crocheted Cover for Pincushion 
The cushion cover shown in Fig. 318, 
is reproduced from the Modern rris- 
cilla. Chain 25, join in loop, 6 ch, 82 
t tr in loop; join with si st at top of 6 
ch; 7 ch, si st in 3d tr; repeat until 
there are 28 loops; 4 si st to middle of 
1st chain of 7; 25 ch,* 30 d tr around 
CROCHETED PIN-CUSHION COVER. Fig. 318. 
this ch, si st in next loop of 7 ch; 7 ch, 
10 loops along top of 30 tr; 8 ch, si st 
in last loop of 7 ch; 7 ch, si st in next 
loop; repeat until there are 9 loops; 
then form picot thus: 11 ch, si st in 4th 
8 ch, si s' in the sme st, ch 7 si st in 
same, 3 ch, si st in last loop of i ch; 6 
ch, si st in next loop of 7; 25 ch, si st 
in the scond loop after the picot; then 
6 ch, and repeat from*. Make 9, of 
these sections; in completing tne 9th, 
after doing 6 loops of ch st on top the 
30 d trs in the second row of loops, con¬ 
nect the 7th and 8th loops witn tne un¬ 
joined end of the first section made; 
then finish as the others. 
If we must measure our habitation by 
a few feet, and our vision be narrowed 
by the width of a small street, let us 
make for ourselves a world within which 
is suggestive of all that ennobles and 
enriches life in freer spaces, and where 
man has united his achievement to God’s 
glory.—New York Evening Post. 
