Fig. 529. baskets and filled with the candied sections of orange. Tie a piece of tape or any kind of band around an orange as a guide for cutting the rind evenly; stick two pins on each side to designate the location and width of the handles; then, with the small blade of a knife carefully cut
Fig. 530. the handle, keeping it the same width all the way from side to side. Next cut the rind along the edge of the tape (Fig. 529). Remove the skin, in bits if necessary, to avoid tearing the handle or edge of the basket. Work the inside juicy fruit free from the remaining rind and take it out of the basket (Fig. 530). If there is difficulty in doing this, cut the fruit out in pieces. Pass a narrow ribbon under the basket and up over the handle, tie the ends; then bind them around under and over
Fig. 531. the middle of the handle, finishing with a bow-knot on top. The ribbon strengthens the handle, without it the weight of the basket when hung on the tree would cause it to break from the handle and fall.
Fill the orange basket, with sections of the fruit, which have received a brittle coating by being dipped in clear, hot, home-made sugar candy (Fig. 531).
Make a number of pretty,
Fancy Boxes
of pasteboard cut in different shapes and covered with various colored paper. One in imitation of a large stick of peppermint candy may be made of a strip of stiff white paper ten or twelve inches long and three and one-half inches wide; unruled writing-paper will do. Paste the two lengthwise edges together, forming a cylinder. Around this paste a long, narrow strip of bright-red paper, wrapping it spirally around the white tube. Slash two circular pieces of paper around the edges so that the disks may fit into the ends of the roll when the slashed portions are bent forward. Fix one of the round pieces in the bottom of the box with mucilage. When dry fill the box with small bits of candy or kernels of nuts; then glue a loop of narrow ribbon or one of red worsted at the top, fasten in the round cover, and hang the box on the tree.
Be sure to save some of the prettiest paper for