ALICE'S LETTER TO HER READERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2026, 22 December 1892, Page 36

ALICE'S LETTER TO HER READERS.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. iNVEitc.VRGiLt,.— I do not understand the game, and have only seen it played, but will inquire for you. Cohrespondent.— (l) I should kiss a girl on the first cheek that was available if I were you. (2) One ring is an engagement riDg, and I suppose the other is a gift. (•<) Certainly it is not proper for a man to kiss a girl who is engaged to another man. I shouldn't do it wnon the "other man" is about if I were you. (4) Certainly, offer your arm. Housewife.— Get some white cherry bark fend "• make a tea of it, and drink a wineglassful after every meal regularly ; this will act as a tonic. Then when the neuralgia comes on put your feet in very hot mustard and water, and have hot flannels applied to your head wruug out of boiling water, or water poured over camomile flowers, keeping up tho treatment for an hour or more if necessary. Be sure to keep replenishing the water to the feet, having it as hot as possible. Roses.— l presume you mean green fly. If so they will die as the rose petals dry. Whca the roses are picked to pieces the petals should be spread on a newspaper and not used till all the moisture has evaporated. Clarence.— (l) For pickling oDiong should be chosen about the size of marbles : the silyerslcinned sorts are the best. Prepare a brine, and put them into it hot ; let them remain one or two days, then drain them, and when quite dry put them into clean, dry jaw, and coyer them with hot vinegar, in every quart of which

has been steeped loz each of horseradish sliced back pepper, allspice, and salt, with or without mustard seed. In all pickles the vinegar should always be 2in or more above the vegetables, as it is sure to shrink, and if the vegetables are not thoroughly immersed in pickle they will not keep. (2) To preserve peaches wipe end pick the fruit, and have ready a quarter of the weight of fine sugar. Put the fruit into a pot or jar that shuts very close ; throw the sugar over it, and then cover the fruit with brandy. Between the top and cover of the pot put a double piece of thick paper. Set the pot in a saucepan of water till the brandy is as hot as you can bear to put your finger into, but do not let it boil. Put the fruit into a jar, and pour on the brandy. Cover in the saiuo manner as preserves. Fly Ckmktery.—A reply to a similar question was answered last week. The papers are 2d each, while composition to spread on tape &c I is 9d per tin. It is obtainable at Mr A. T. Price s, Princes street, or from any chemist whose advertisement appears elsewhere.

Bret Harte tells us " How Santa Claus came to Sandy Bar " with the power and pathos that he and Dickens both possessed of bringing the spirit of the Christmas season right into the heart. " Hevin' a good time out yer, dad ? " asked the sick boy oE his father, who having heard his " Johnny " groan bad left his noisy companions to rub the stiff rheumatic limbs. '• Hevin' a good time out yer, dad ? "

" Yes, sonny." " To-morrer's Chrismiss, ain't it 1 "

" Yes, sonny. How does she feel now 1 " "Better. Rub a little furder down. What's Chrismies, anyway '/ Wot's it all about ? "

" Oh, it's a day." This exhaustive definition waß apparently satisfactory, for there was a silent interval of rubbing. Presently Johnny spoke again "Mar sez that everywhere else but yer everybody gives things to everybody Chrismiss, and then she just waded inter you. She sez thar'sa man they call Sandy Claws — not a white roan, you know, but a kind o' Chinemin, comes down the chimbley night afore Chrismiss and giveß things to children boys like me. Puts 'em in their hutes 1 That's what she tried to play upon me. Easy now, pop ; whar are you rubbin' to 1 — that's a mile from the place. Bhe jest made

that up, didn't she, jest to aggrewate me and you ? Don't rub thar ? Why, dad i " You remember how the rough miners in the adjacent room sat so engrossed listening, that the rustling of the pine trees outside was heard in the silence, and how the magnetic touch of human suffering and helplessness opened their rough hearts, and the Christ spirit awoke. Then how " Dick," the strongest and roughest and bravest of those men, headed the contribution, to which the unkempt visitors each added spontaneously, and then ''Dick" upon his good horse goes out into the night and rides desperately over hill and gorge to the nearest township to purchase gifts, and desperately back again bo as to be there by daylight end he "Johnnies" "Santa Olaus," and how, wounded and dying, "Dick" presses on, and hand* in tho toys when the day is breaking, and touches rosy red the distant bills. (