HOW CABBAGES GOT HEARTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1931, Page 20 (Supplement)

HOW CABBAGES GOT HEARTS.

Mother Nature was very angry with her vegetables, for they were all unkind and selfish. One day she went to her vegetable garden and said: “If one of you does not do a good deed in five hours I will banish you all from the earth.” “Oh,” cried the potato boys, when she had gone; “we are not going to put ourselves out for any of you.” “No,” said the old onion, “she does not mean it; she will go away and not think of it again.” •So for the next three hours the vegetables went on their old selfish way; but the cabbages were deep in thought. All this time Mother Nature had hidden under a bush, and she was displeased. Then all at once a brown mouse ran out crying, “The big cat will eat me all up. Oh, please hide me. Please! Please!” “We won’t hide you; go away.. We don’t care if the cats eat you,’’ said the parsley and the carrot and all the other vegetables at once. But the kind cabbages said. “Hide under our leaves. We will hide you from the'cats.” Then a whirl of smoke and the little mouse turned into Mother Nature. "You are very good,” she said to the cabbages, “and I will reward you by giving you hearts.” So that is how the cabbages got their hearts, and because the cabbages did a good deed the vegetables were saved. APPLE FLOWERS. Have you ever had an “apple flower’’? Oh, they are pretty; let me tell you how they are made. First of all, you choose a nice, round apple, as rosy a one as you can get. Next a silver fruit-knife is needed, but, unless you are very particular, a penknife will do just as well. Now comes the important part. Towards the centre of the apple and all round it, cut deeply in slanting, zig-zag lines, being very careful to go right to the core each time. To make certain that these “jimps will be all the same "size, it is wiser to mark the lines of the cuts with chalk or lead pencil beforehand, because all the points should be as big as one another for a really pretty apple flower. Now open the apple very carefully; if the parts do not come apart quite easily, just go over the lines again, cutting inwards a little more deeply; the result is most charming, and I’m sure you will never again want an apple cut plainly across the middle after seeing it done in this way. Try this at your next party, and see how delighted will be all-your friends to receive apple flowers, but be sure not to cut them until just before they, are wanted, or the apple flowers will, sad to say, turn brown, just as if they have faded, '