1½ C-flour
3 t-baking powder
¼ t-salt
1½ T-lard
½ C-milk
Mix and sift well the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the lard with a knife until the consistency of cornmeal. Add the milk slowly, stirring with a knife until the dough is soft enough to be handled without sticking to the fingers. Place on a floured board, pat into shape, with the hands, to a thickness of two-thirds of an inch. Cut with a biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits side by side in a tin pan. Bake in a moderate oven fifteen minutes. Serve on a folded napkin.
CHAPTER CXLIV
MRS. DIXON HAPPENS IN
"I MUST hurry home to get dinner," said Mrs. Dixon. "See, Bettina, I've been to the market! Isn't this a fine big cantaloupe? I have two more just like it. Frank is very fond of them, but——" she added ruefully, "I like them cold, of course, and after I've fixed them and had them in the refrigerator a while, everything in it—milk, butter and eggs—has the cantaloupe taste!"
"I'll tell you how you can prevent that, Charlotte. Of course they must be very cold when served, but I never prepare them till just before the meal. I put them in the ice box whole, in a paper sack, taking care that the mouth of the sack is closed. They become very cold that way, and at the same time can't affect the other food."
"I'm so glad you told me that, Bettina. I've learned a great many things from you, haven't I? Oh, yes, another thing puzzles me. I like chipped ice served in and with the cantaloupe, and I don't own any tool for preparing the ice. I do fix it somehow, of course, but I've wondered how other people manage."
"Well, there are regular ice shavers, you know; but I haven't one, either. I keep a salt sack that I use for that purpose whenever I need just a little chipped ice. It isn't hard to break off a piece small enough to go in a salt sack; in fact, you usually have one in your ice box already. I put it in the sack and break it fine with the flat side of a small hatchet."