Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Boil the sugar and boiling water together for ten minutes; then set away to cool. When cold, dissolve the tartaric acid in the four table-spoonfuls of cold water, and add to the syrup. Beat the white of the egg with the warm water, being careful to break it thoroughly, yet not to make it light. Add this liquid to the syrup. Stir well, and pour through a fine strainer. Divide this mixture in halves, and add to one part a teaspoonful and a half of vanilla extract, and to the other part a teaspoonful and a half of lemon extract. Other flavors may be substituted for those named. Bottle the syrup, and put in a cool place. The bottles should be labelled. Now prepare the soda. It is well to get some powdered and sifted soda at a drugstore. If the common soda be used, powder and sift it. Fold up in each of a number of small papers about as much soda as would be contained in a lump the size of a large pea. About thirty powders will be required for the quantity of syrup made. Keep them in a box beside the bottles, where they will be ready for use at any time. To prepare the soda for drinking, half fill a glass with ice-water, then put in two table-spoonfuls of syrup, and finally add one of the powders, stirring quickly until the drink foams. A Refreshing Drink. When fresh fruits are plentiful, a delicious drink may be made by mixing two cupfuls of sugar, one of lemon juice, a pint of the juice of strawberries or raspberries, a small pineapple, grated, two quarts of water, and ice enough to make very cold. Three quarts of the beverage can be made with these articles. It will be found nice for a garden or lawn party. . THE work of preserving requires time and pains ; and unless one be willing to meet both of these requirements with a determination not to feel burdened, it will be better to buy such supplies as may be needed from time to time. Still, it is a comfort to a woman to have a good stock of her own making when the long season comes in which fresh fruit cannot be obtained; for if she have articles which she herself has produced, or which she has had made by some one of the many women who make a business of preserving for others, there will never be any doubt as to the quality of the fruit when it is wanted for the table on any particular occasion. In the matter of jellies, especially, the wise housekeeper either makes exactly what she desires, or has the work done under her supervision, — not trusting to the grocer for a supply. Only a small proportion of the jellies which are sold in stores is made from fruit juice, and a roast of mutton or venison is not complete without a tumbler of currant, grape, or barberry jelly. The season for one fruit succeeds that for another so rapidly during the summer that unless a housekeeper be watchful, the particular fruits which she may have thought of preserving will go by before she is aware of it. When it comes to fruit like the blackberry, which ripens in Florida in March and April, and which can be found in perfection in Vermont as late as September, it is hard to say which is the best time for its preservation. A good general rule is that all fruits are at their best for canning when they are ripe and firm ; but they should