ves are put on the plate with
each piece, or, if you prefer it, a spoonful of sauce tartare.

The ices may be of strawberry cream or of raspberry ice or a mixture of
both, they are to be heart-shaped, as has been said, and each one should
have a sugar arrow stuck through it. If you prefer roses to hearts,
these should be laid on lace papers. If this course must be prepared at
home, the cream can easily be coloured a rose tint with fruit colour,
and a spoonful served in a dainty little box made of pasteboard covered
with rose crepe paper, cut to resemble petals of the flower, tied with
ribbons to match.

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY LUNCHEON

The twenty-second of February suggests that an almost unlimited amount
of ingenuity may be spent in preparing a meal in honour of the Father of
our Country. There is opportunity for decoration such as few gala days
offer, and this may easily be the prettiest luncheon of the year.

If the meal is an informal one a centrepiece may be arranged which will
amuse the guests. Get at the florist's a small dead plant, such as an
azalea, and pick off some of the twigs, making a symmetrical tree of
diminutive size. At a Japanese shop you can buy the pretty artificial
cherry blossoms used to set off the bric-a-brac in the windows, and
these can be fastened to the twigs with invisible wire, the little tree
may stand in a low pot filled with moss, and at its base may be a small
hatchet. With this, your candle-shades should be a sort of rosy white.
You might use in preference to this a bunch of the cherry branches in a
vase in the centre.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Or, if you prefer to have the Colonial colours, choose a large dark-blue
bowl and fill it with yellow tulips, and have all the dishes, or at
least several sets of plates, of dark-blue ware; if one does not own
Staffordshire of her grandmother's or the beautiful Chinese Canton
china, still she need not despair, for the shops are full of a cheap and
pretty imitation of the latter which gives an admirable effect. The
candle-shades should be yellow, in tulip pattern preferably, and the
candlesticks of old-fashioned silver.

[Illustration: A WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY FAVOUR.]

At each plate lay a bonbon box in the form of a paper hatchet with the
handle filled with red and white candies, and tie a bunch of artificial
cherries to it with narrow ribbon. You can get at the printer's cards
with the head of Washington which a line of gold