“When you’re ready to go at it again, you weigh it once more and add four times as many pounds of sugar as you have fruit.”

“You must have to make it in a wash-boiler!”

“Not quite as bad as that, but you’ll be surprised to find how much three or four grapefruit will make.  You boil this together until it is as thick as you like to have your marmalade.”

“I can recommend Aunt Louise’s marmalade,” said Ethel Brown.  “It’s the very best I ever tasted.  She taught me to make these grapefruit chips,” and she handed about a bonbon dish laden with delicate strips of sugared peel.

“Let’s have this receipt, too,” begged Margaret, as Roger went to answer the telephone.

“You can squeeze out the juice and pulp and add a quart of water to a cup of juice, sweeten it and make grapefruit-ade instead of lemonade for a variety.  Then take the skins and cut out all the white inside part as well as you can, leaving just the rind.”

“The next step must be to snip the rind into these long, narrow shavings.”

“It is, and you put them in cold water and let them come to a boil and boil twenty minutes.  Then drain off all the water and add cold water and do it again.”

“What’s the idea of two boilings?” asked James.

“I suppose it must be to take all the bitterness out of the skin at the same time that it is getting soft.”

“Does this have to stand over night?”

“Yes, this sits and meditates all night.  Then you put it on to boil again in a syrup made of one cup of water and four cups of sugar, and boil it until the bits are all saturated with the sweetness.  If you want to eat them right off you roll them now in powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar, but if you aren’t in a hurry you put them into a jar and keep the air out and roll them just before you want to serve them.”

“They certainly are bully good,” remarked James, taking several more pieces.

“That call was from Tom Watkins,” announced Roger, returning from the telephone, and referring to a member of the United Service Club who, with his sister, Della, lived in New York.

“O dear, they can’t come!” prophesied Ethel Blue.

“He says he has just been telephoning to the railroad and they say that all the New Jersey trains are delayed and so Mrs. Watkins thought he’d better not try to bring Della out.  She sends her love to you, Ethel Blue, and her best wishes for your birthday and says she’s got a present for you that is different from any plant you ever saw in a conservatory.”

“That’s what Margaret’s is,” laughed Ethel.  “Isn’t it queer you two girls should give me growing things when we were talking about gardens this afternoon and deciding to have one this summer.”

“One!” repeated Dorothy.  “Don’t forget mine.  There’ll be two.”

“If Aunt Louise should find a lot and start to build there’d be another,” suggested Ethel Brown.