I 
American Agriculturist, December 8, 1923 
f 
Christmas Ideas for Country Givers 
Use Opportunities that Lie at Hand—Some Cranberry Recipes 
I T is frequently inconvenient for the country 
woman to spend a great deal of timejor money 
for the city cousins’ Christmas gifts. Some¬ 
times we do not make use of the material at 
hand which would make very pleasing presents 
for city dwellers. 
Nearly everyone in the country has access 
to some kinds of foliage or berries which make 
beautiful Christmas decorations. Bittersweet 
berries have a remarkable keeping quality and 
are usually quite plentiful in all sections of 
the country. Care in picking should be used 
so as not to needlessly injure the vines. Those 
who live near the mountains can gather kinnik- 
inic or bearberry or other everlasting berries 
and foliage. Any evergreen plant should be 
stored in a damp place or at least dipped into 
water occasionally to prevent premature leaf 
dropping. ., 
There are many kinds of everlasting flowers 
which may be made up into lovely winter 
bouquets. Grasses, cat-tails, milkweed pods, 
pine cones in clusters, may all be used effec¬ 
tively by tinting with colors and gilt or silver 
paint. A short walk on any country road will 
reveal many treasures to the observant eye. 
Those who live in the nut districts have a 
gold mine at hand for supplying attractive 
Christmas gifts. Chestnuts, black walnuts, 
hickory nuts all make welcome gifts. The 
nut meats packed in glass jars are time saving 
gifts. 
Those who make their own cottage or dutch 
cheese can prepare delightful surprises by 
filling paraffined containers, such as one buys 
ice cream in, with the cheese flavored if de¬ 
sired with pimentoes, green peppers, nuts, etc. 
Mince meat is a most acceptable gift and 
may be easily sent in glass jars well packed 
or paper containers. 
The ingenious person can easily add several 
articles to the list mentioned which would be 
inexpensive and easily secured and be very 
acceptable gifts.— Ruth Cessna. 
“ON THE SQUARE’’ GIFTS 
H ERE are some easily-made gifts, none of 
which takes much time. 
Take a square yard of cretonne, hem or 
bind it all around, attach a small brass ring to 
each corner, rim a ribbon or tape through and 
you have an extremely convenient laundry bag. 
Piece bags, button bags, etc., may be made 
the same way by varying size and material 
to suit purpose for w'hich bag is designed. 
These bags open flat so contents may all be 
seen and sorted quickly. 
Oil-cloth or any rubberized cloth made into 
this style of bag is handy for bathing suits. 
A safety pin will, if fastened through the four 
rings, keep the bag closed even when it isn’t 
hanging up. 
A square yard of any fine pretty goods makes 
a lovely combing-jacket. Fold opposite 
corners together forming triangle. Cut along 
one fold, to center, cut circular or square 
opening there for neck, bind edges with bias 
binding or ribbon, add tape or ribbon ties at 
neck and it is finished. 
Made of a heavy material this fashions a 
clever wrap for an invalid just able to sit up 
in bed. It is becoming, cozy, and easily 
adjusted. 
A square of eiderdown; wool or flannel; or 
even a double-thickness square of cotton 
flannel; all bound with a dainty ribbon is 
a convenience for a mother of a young baby. 
It serves many purposes as shawl, blanket, 
lap-pad,’ etc. A pair of doll blankets made iq 
a similar way wall delight any small girl, and 
the boy will enjoy a colored blanket, plainly 
hemmed, for his wooden horse if he owns one. 
—Mabelle Roberts. 
A CHRISTMAS ALBUM 
F you are one of those who married and went 
far away from relatives and friends perhaps 
this little Christmas suggestion of mine will 
interest you. Since I have lived on a farm, 
none of my relatives has ever visited me, but 
their letters often voice the desire to see where 
I live, so that at least they will know what the 
farm looks like. 
With this thought in mind I decided to 
gather together all the kodak views of the farm 
that I could, mount them in a book and give 
them to relatives and close friends for Christ¬ 
mas gifts. After collecting all the back ones, 
I took some pretty scenes to fill out the year. 
For the book I bought light grey cardboard 
and had it cut into pages four by five inches, 
just large enough to mount one picture. Holes 
punched in the end of each sheet were threaded 
with cord to hold the book together. I used 
black ink for the titles under the pictures. 
On the cover of the book I printed in large 
letters, “Edgewood Farm” and inside on the 
first page I chose for the opening picture a 
view of the entire place as one approaches it 
over the top of the hill. Then followed the 
many different pictures of the house, the yard, 
the flowers, and the pasture along the river, 
snapshots of different animals and last but not 
least “The Farmer,” “The Farmeress,” “The 
Baby,” “Shep” our faithful dog, and “The 
Cats.” 
I made three books and sent one to my 
grandmother, one to my parents and one to a 
far away college friend. Their letters of ap¬ 
preciation surely made me feel that my gift 
had been successful.— Agnes Dunshee Arney. 
THE SELFISH CHILD 
“ T’M so worried about Paul,” confided Mrs. 
1. Miller to her sister, a trained Kinder- 
gartner. 
“What is the matter with Paul?” 
“He’s selfish,” lamented the mother. “He 
grabs his candy in greedy little fists. He 
snatches the reddest apple and refuses baby 
sister a bite.” 
“Splendid little egotist,” laughed the kinder- 
gartner. Then she sobered before her sister’s 
grieved eyes. • 
“Paul is neither wicked nor depraved,” she 
stated. “Selfishness is normal for a small 
child. It merely shows one of the great basic 
instihcts, the instinct for self-preservation. 
If he is to live he must have many, many 
things. Instinct tells him to seize and to 
hold. Rightly trained, the ego instinct is 
a fine thing. Miriam Finn Scott in her book 
‘How to Know Your Child’ tells us: ‘When 
we try to analyze the faults of our children we 
discover that, in the majority of cases, the 
faults are only an unpleasant expression of 
forces that, in themselves, were originally 
admirable.’ Selfishness is a valuable instinct, 
perverted. 
“Now for methods,” continued the kinder- 
gartner.-* “Don’t expect some magic to erad¬ 
icate selfishness over night. You must grow" 
the flower of generosity and that is a long, slow, 
gradual process.” 
“But Cousin Kate told me that she cured 
Clara in an hour,” protested the mother. 
“ Clara refused to let a playmate take her doll 
and Kate flung it into the open grate. Clara 
cried and screamed but she was cured. Now 
she shares her possessions at a word.” 
Fright Doesn’t Cure Anything 
“Kate hasn’t cured selfishness,” pronounced 
the kindergartner. “She has instilled fear. 
That is like curing a wart on the finger by 
cutting off the arm. 
“The correct way is to emphasize the joys 
of generosity. Don’t nag about sister’s tears 
when Paul is selfish. Smile about her hap¬ 
piness when brother is generous. Give him 
the privilege of passing candy to all your guests 
at table. Tell stories which emphasize the 
desirability of generosity, as Ruskin’s ‘King 
of the Golden River.’ If he persistently re¬ 
fuses to share a toy, tell him, ‘The fire engine 
can’t stay with a selfish boy,’ and put it away 
for a week. Do something daily to strengthen 
the generosity habit. The young child is 
incapable of genuine altruism. Above all, 
be honest.” 
“Meaning?” queried the mother. 
“I was thinking of dangerous devices, 
descended fromj antiquity,” explained her sis¬ 
ter. | “Probably prehistoric woman, observing 
her offspring clutching an unshared bone, 
covered her face with her hands and shrilled: 
‘“Mother’ll cry!’ 
“Probably the child gave her a gnaw from 
the bone then, but he soon discovered that 
she was shamming and trading on his love to 
the point of hypocrisy. Be honorable. 
“One more suggestion. Cultivate sensible 
selfishness yourself. The most ungenerous 
children I’ve known have belonged to sweetly 
sacrificing mothers. Don’t give up your own 
desires and preferences when it is really not 
best for Paul that you should do so.” 
CRANBERRY TIME IS HERE 
ETWEEN Thanksgiving and Christmas 
comes the ideal time for cranberries and 
though the jelly is probably the best known 
form of using this pretty red berry, there are 
numerous other ways of cooking it. The 
cranberry has a distinctive and unusual flavor 
and is a valuable addition to the usual winter 
fruits. One word of warning: pick over berries 
carefully, using only sound, unbruised ones. 
It will pay to sort out every under or over¬ 
ripe berry, for these have a marked effect in 
the flavor of your finished product. 
Cranberry Puffs.—Mix well four teaspoon¬ 
fuls of baking powder, with two cupfuls of 
flour, one-half teaspoonful of salt, then add 
five tablespoonfuls of melted butter, and two 
well beaten eggs, and one cupful of milk. Stir 
in last one pint of washed cranberries. Fill 
buttered cups one-half full and steam one hour 
in a closely covered steamer or steam two hours 
in any favorite mold. Serve with a little 
whipped cream or merely sprinkle with 
powdered sugar. 
Cranberry Fritters.—Add two tablespoon¬ 
fuls of sugar to one well beaten egg/then add one 
, and a half cupfuls of flour, and one teaspoonful 
of baking powder. When well mixed stir in one 
cupful of thick cranberry sauce and drop by 
spoonfuls on a hot greased griddle. Brown 
lightly and serve sprinkled with sugar. 
Cranberry Dessert.—Beat the yolks]of two 
eggs, add one cupful of sugar, one cupful of 
sweet milk, and about two cupfuls of flour, one 
teaspoonful of cream of tartar, and three- 
fourths teaspoonful of soda, sifted into the 
flour. Lastly add one cupful of stewed cran¬ 
berries. Cut batter in two pieces and bake 
about one-half hour. For a delicious sauce 
beat to a stiff froth the whites of two eggs, in 
the meanwhile boil one-half cupful of water 
with one cupful of sugar, then add a teaspoon¬ 
ful of flour, or add a little cold water to the 
sugar and flour and pour into the boiling water. 
Cook till thickened, then add one teaspoOnful 
of favorite flavoring, and pour over the beaten 
whites, then beat several minutes. 
Cranberry and Raisin Pie.—Cook one 
quart of cranberries, and two cupfuls of seeded 
raisins, in water enough to cover for twenty 
minutes. Put two eggs in a bowl, with one big 
cupful of sugar and two small tablespoonfuls 
of flour, beat them together and stir into the 
boiling berries. Cook a few minutes until 
thick enough and then set back to cool. Add 
small piece of butter. 
Cranberry Pudding.—Beat one egg and 
add one-half cupful of sugar and one-half cupful 
of sweet milk. Mix and sift one cupful of flour 
with one teaspoonful of baking powder. 
Combine mixtures and add one tablespoonful 
of melted butter and two-thirds cupful of 
cranberries. Bake in buttered muffin pans. 
Serve with hot maple syrup and whippedjcrea m. 
Cranberry Jelly.—Cook one quart of cran¬ 
berries and one pint of water about ten minutes, 
strain through colander, return to kettle, add 
one pound of sugar, boil five minutes and turn 
into a jelly mold. Very delicious if a few 
chopped nut meats are added. 
Cranberry Rice Meringue.—Line patty 
pans [with puff paste, fill them with uncooked 
rice and bake till done in hot oven. When 
baked let cool and turn out rice. Then fill with 
rich jellied cranberry sauce, and spread with a 
meringue made of the white of one egg and one 
half cupful of powdered sugar. Put in oven and 
slightly brown to a straw color. 
Cranberries and Bananas.—Stew one 
quart of cranberries in a little water with suffi¬ 
cient sugar for sweetening until very tender, 
then add a few chopped walnut meats and let 
cool. Meanwhile slice bananas into a dish and 
completely cover with whipped cream and 
grated cocoanut. Decorate with cranberries.— 
H. A. Lynan. 
“HELP WANTED” 
AN you suggest some way for taking care 
of the magazines and keeping them in 
order? We take a number and have difficulty 
in finding the one we want when we want it.— 
Mrs. N. J. C., Pa. 
Can any farm wife tell me how to make 
cream cheese? I can make only cottage cheese 
but I should like to know how to make the 
others too. I like to read the A. A. very much 
and read every recipe that is printed. If 
anyone will tell me how to make cream cheese 
I shall be glad to tell how I make cottage 
cheese.— Mrs. D. R. A., Pa. 
Send answers care of the Household Editor, 
American Agriculturist. 
The Broad Highway 
{Continued from page 397) 
So evilly did the place impress me that it 
needed an effort of will ere I could bring my¬ 
self to descend the precipitous slope. By the 
time I reached the cottage, it had fallen quite 
dark in the Hollow though the light still ling¬ 
ered in the world above. So I took out my 
tinder-box, and one of the candles which I 
succeeded in lighting, and, stepping into the 
cottage, began to look about me. 
(To be continued ) 
399 
FOR forty years the 
pain of bruises, cuts, 
sprains, strains, 
burns, backache, sore 
throat, colds, mus¬ 
cular and inflamma¬ 
tory rheumatism, 
sciatica and lumbago 
have been quickly re¬ 
lieved by Gombault’s 
Balsam. 
The standard household remedy. Heal¬ 
ing, antiseptic, safe to use on the most 
tender skin. $1.50perbottleatdruggists 
ordirectupon receiptof price. A little 
kills a lot of pain. The Lawrence- 
Williams Company, Cleveland, Ohio. 
GOMBAULTS 
BALSAM 
The Imported Liniment 
HEALING and ANTISEPTIC 
The 
“Pride” 
Send for 
Catalog 40 
A Modern Bathroom, $60 
Just one of our wonderful bargains. Set 
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roll rim bath tub, one 19 inch roll rim 
enameled flat-back lavatory, and a syphon 
action, wash-down water closet with 
porcelain tank and oak post hinge seat; all 
china index faucets, nickel-plated traps, 
and all nickel-plated heavy fittings. J. M. 
SEIDENBERG CO., Inc., 254 W. 34 St., 
Bet. 7th and 8th Aves., N. Y. C. 
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Hill’s Cascara Bromide Quinine gives 
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CB-202) 
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As a special introductory offer, we will 
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Dept. 30 - 69 , Chicago, III. 
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