** Perfectly lovely !'* laughed Mother Blair. **We will get a can of raspberries out of the fruit closet, and make something for them that will be ever so good. This is the rule: PICNIC LEMONADE 8 lemons. 12 glasses of water. 3 cups of sugar. 1 oup of raspberry juice✪ Picnic Lemonade. THE BIBTHDAT PICNIC 69 Boll the lemons till they are soft; cut them and squeeze the juice out. Put the sugar in a little pan with a glass of water, and boil it two minutes; add this to the lemon and raspberry juice, and strain it; add the rest of the water; serve with broken ice in a glass pitcher. **Be sure and boil the sugar and water to- gether, Mildred, whenever you make any kind of drink like lemonade ; it is so much better than if you put in plain sugar. When it is all done, if it is not quite sweet enough, you can add a little powdered sugar without hurting it/' ** Mother, we forgot the surprise! You re- member, * every luncheon must have a surprise,' you said ; see, here it is in the book. ' ' **Dear me, so I did I What shall it be, Mil- dred! I can't seem to think of another thing for that picnic.*' '^Neither can I." ** Stuffed dates!" exclaimed Mother Blair, presently. *^I knew there must be something, and those will be exactly right. ' ' STUFFED DATES Wash the dates and wipe them dry. Open one side and take out the stone; in its place press in half a pecan or other nut✪ Stuffed Dates; close the edges, and roll each date in powdered sugar. **I do hope there will be some of those over 70 THE FUN OF COOKING for us,'' said Mildred, as she put her book away. ^ * Those children are going to have a wonderful lunch!" Brownie could not imagine what her birthday surprise was to be. She could not help guess- ing, but she never once was ^*warm." When Saturday came, and the boys and girls arrived in their every-day clothes and even kept on their wraps in the parior, she did not know what to think ; and there was actually no lunch for them in the dining-room! She began to look very sober. But when everybody had come, Mother Blair said : * * Won 't you go up-stairs ! ' ' and Mildred and Jack ushered them up to the attic It was such a lovely surprise ! The big green carpets were spread down on the bare floor, and all around were set little green trees in pots. The canary was hung up out of sight, and he was singing as hard as he could. It was not a bit too cold, for the door had been kept open all day and the sun was shining in at the window. And just then appeared Mother Blair, and Norah, and Jack, and Mildred, all carrying baskets, which they put down on the floor. Then the picnic began ! There was first the cloth to spread down on THE BIRTHDAY PICNIC 71 the grass, and paper plates and napkins to be passed around. The veal loaf was found, a plat- ter of it tied up in a large napkin, and hot sand- wiches between hot plates, tied up in another napkin, and marmalade sandwiches folded in paraflSn paper by them- selves. Last of all were the orange bas- kets, each one twisted up in a paper napkin with a funny little frill on top made of the ends of the napkin; and the dates were in little square paper boxes, one box for each child. As they began to eat, ^'^ "^^ ^^ lemonade Jack came up with a big, big pitcher of beauti- ful pink lemonade, and little glasses to drink it out of. Oh, such a picnic as it was! Such a perfectly lovely picnic I Out-of-door picnics were nothing to it. And when they had eaten up every crumh and drank up every drop, they played games until the attic grew dark; and then they all went home, and the birthday was over. CHAPTEE V SUNDAY NIGHT STJPPEB ONE Sunday afternoon just as the clock struck three, the Blairs* telephone rang; and after she had answered it, Mother Blair called Mildred, who sat reading hy the window.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

** Perfectly lovely !'* laughed Mother Blair. **We will get a can of raspberries out of the fruit closet, and make something for them that will be ever so good. This is the rule: PICNIC LEMONADE 8 lemons. 12 glasses of water. 3 cups of sugar. 1 cup of raspberry juice. Boil the lemons till they are soft; cut them and squeeze the juice out. Put the sugar in a little pan with a glass of water, and boil it two minutes; add this to the lemon and raspberry juice, and strain it; add the rest of the water; serve with broken ice in a glass pitcher. **Be sure and boil the sugar and water together, Mildred, whenever you make any kind of drink like lemonade ; it is so much better than if you put in plain sugar. When it is all done, if it is not quite sweet enough, you can add a little powdered sugar without hurting it/' ** Mother, we forgot the surprise! You remember, * every luncheon must have a surprise,' you said ; see, here it is in the book. ' ' **Dear me, so I did I What shall it be, Mildred! I can't seem to think of another thing for that picnic.*' '^Neither can I." ** Stuffed dates!" exclaimed Mother Blair, presently. *^I knew there must be something, and those will be exactly right. ' ' STUFFED DATES Wash the dates and wipe them dry. Open one side and take out the stone; in its place press in half a pecan or other nut; close the edges, and roll each date in powdered sugar. **I do hope there will be some of those over for us,'' said Mildred, as she put her book away. ^ * Those children are going to have a wonderful lunch!" Brownie could not imagine what her birthday surprise was to be. She could not help guessing, but she never once was ^*warm." When Saturday came, and the boys and girls arrived in their every-day clothes and even kept on their wraps in the parlor, she did not know what to think ; and there was actually no lunch for them in the dining-room! She began to look very sober. But when everybody had come, Mother Blair said : * * Won 't you go up-stairs ! ' ' and Mildred and Jack ushered them up to the attic It was such a lovely surprise ! The big green carpets were spread down on the bare floor, and all around were set little green trees in pots. The canary was hung up out of sight, and he was singing as hard as he could. It was not a bit too cold, for the door had been kept open all day and the sun was shining in at the window. And just then appeared Mother Blair, and Norah, and Jack, and Mildred, all carrying baskets, which they put down on the floor. Then the picnic began ! There was first the cloth to spread down on the grass, and paper plates and napkins to be passed around. The veal loaf was found, a platter of it tied up in a large napkin, and hot sandwiches between hot plates, tied up in another napkin, and marmalade sandwiches folded in paraffin paper by themselves. Last of all were the orange baskets, each one twisted up in a paper napkin with a funny little frill on top made of the ends of the napkin; and the dates were in little square paper boxes, one box for each child. [illustration: lemonade] Jack came up with a big, big pitcher of beautiful pink lemonade, and little glasses to drink it out of. Oh, such a picnic as it was! Such a perfectly lovely picnic I Out-of-door picnics were nothing to it. And when they had eaten up every crumb and drank up every drop, they played games until the attic grew dark; and then they all went home, and the birthday was over. CHAPTEE V ONE Sunday afternoon just as the clock struck three, the Blairs* telephone rang; and after she had answered it, Mother Blair called Mildred, who sat reading hy the window.

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