ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14250, 22 December 1909, Page 7 (Supplement)

ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF EMPIRE.

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES.

THERE'S a Legion that never was 'listed, That carries no colours nor crest, But, split in a thousand detachments, Is breaking the road for the rest. Our fathers they left us their blessing— They taught us, and groomed us, and crammed; But we've shaken the Clubs and the Messes To go and find out and be damned .... We preach in advance of the Army, Wo skirmish ahead of the Church, With never a gunboat to help us When we're scuppered and left in the lurch. But we know, as the cartridges finish And we're filed on our last little shelves That the Legion that never was 'listed Will send us as good as ourselves. . . . Then a health (we must drink it in whispers) To our wholly unauthorised hordeTo the line of our dusty foreloopers, The Gentlemen Rovers abroad. Yes, a health to ourselves ere we scatter, For the steamer won't wait for the train. And the Legion that never was 'listed Goes back into quarters again. —From *' The Lost Lesion." by Rudyard Kipling.

have no sugar-boiling thermometer drop a little of the mixture into some cold water, and if, when cold, it is hard and stiff, it is done. Then pour it either on to an oiled slab, keeping it the proper shape and thickness with an iron bar frame sold for the purpose, or substitute either a shallow tin or the deep lid of a tin box; in either case oil it well. .When nearly cold mark it out in squares with a slightlyoiled sharp knife, and wrap each square in a piece of waxed paper. Chocolate Pralines Required— ounces of sweet almonds; live ounces of lump sugar; good . coating chocolate. Blanch and shred the almonds, then put them on a tin in the oven and brown them slightly. Rinse out a steel or copper pan with cold water, put the sugar into it and melt it slowly; then boil it until it is a golden-brown. Next pour it on to an oiled dish or slab, and leave it until cold. Next pound the sugar to powder in a mortar, pound the almonds to a paste; then put the sugar and almonds together and pound them until they can easily be formed into small cork-like shapes. When all the mixture is shaped, melt the chocolate gently in a jar or cup placed in a pan of boiling water on the fire. Dip each praline into the chocolate, and coat it all over; then place it into a sheet of greased paper until it is drv. When coating with chocolate care should be taken to do it in as dry an atmosphere as possible; you cannot do it successfully in a steaming kitchen. This is a very important. point to remember. Orange, Lemon, and Raspberry Creams: Required—Three-quarters of a, pound of icing sugar; one orange; one lemon ; cochineal; raspberry flavouring; yellow colouring ; a little tartaric acid. Sieve the sugar and divide it equally into three basins. Grate the orange-rind' into one, the lemonrind into the other; add to each a tiny pinch of tartaric acid. Strain in enough orange and lemon-juice respectively- to each basin to make the sugar into a stiff, smooth paste. Into the third basin add raspberry flavouring and water to form the sugar into a well-flavoured, smooth paste. Turn the three pieces of sugar-paste on to a board, and knead each well: should either be inclined to crumble, add a little more water or juice. Colour the orange-flavoured paste a pretty orange tint, with yellow colouring, and the raspberry a pale 'pink with cochineal. The lemon may be left, as it is. Form the mixture into balls. . then press these with the finger and thumb into oval shapes. On to each orange cream press a tiny strip or crescent-shape of candied orange-peel; on to the lemon put lemonpeel, and leave the raspberry one plain. Leave the creams on a tin lined with paper until next day to harden slightly; but they should never be reallv hard.