We resolved to have a fair and to sell candy at it, making every bit ourselves.

Therefore we had sent out some invitations to girls not of the club, and to some of the nicest boys.  They were as follows: 

The Clover Leaf Club of Bloomdale requests the pleasure of your
company at the house of Miss Jeanie Cartwright, on Friday evening,
September 8, at eight o’clock.  Candy pull.

MILLY VAN DOREN,
President.

LOIS PARTRIDGE,
Secretary.

I had my doubts all day as to whether it would be right for me to go; but about four o’clock Aunt Hetty, looking as well as ever, came out of her room in a stiffly starched gingham gown, and proceeded to cook for herself a rasher of bacon and some eggs.  Grandmamma was up and reading one of her favorite books; and Miss Muffett, who had stepped over to her house to attend to her sister and the parrot, came back declaring her intention to stay all night.

“So, my darling child, you may go, and welcome.”

Away went my doubts and fears, and I tripped merrily down the street to Jeanie’s, feeling the happier for a letter from mother, which I found at the post office.

Our candy was to be sold for a cent a stick, but the sticks were not scanty little snips by any means.  Mrs. Cartwright made us a present of the molasses, Lois brought the sugar from home, Al Fay brought the saleratus, Patty remembered about the vinegar, and Marjorie produced the butter.

These were the ingredients:  a half-gallon of New Orleans molasses, a cup of vinegar, a piece of butter as large as two eggs, a good teaspoonful of saleratus dissolved in hot water.

We melted the sugar in the vinegar, stirred it into the molasses, and let it come to the boil, stirring steadily.  The boys took turns at this work.

When the syrup began to thicken we dropped in the saleratus, which makes it clear; then flouring our hands, each took a position, and pulled it till it was white.

The longer we pulled, the whiter it grew.  We ate some of it, but we girls were quite firm in saving half for our sale.

Then we made maple-sugar caramels.  Have you ever tried them?  They are splendid.  You must have maple sugar to begin with; real sugar from the trees in Vermont if you can get it.  You will need a deep saucepan.  Then into a quart of fresh sweet milk break two pounds of sugar.  Set it over the fire.  As the sugar melts, it will expand.  Boil, boil, boil, stir, stir, stir.  Never mind if your face grows hot.  One cannot make candy sitting in a rocking-chair with a fan.  One doesn’t calculate to, as Great-aunt Jessamine always says.

The way to test it when you think it is done is to drop a portion in cold water.  If brittle enough to break, it is done.  Pour into square buttered pans, and mark off while soft into little squares with a knife.

Some people like cream candy.  It is made in this way:  three large cupfuls of loaf-sugar, six tablespoonfuls of water.  Boil, without stirring, in a bright tin pan until it will crisp in water like molasses candy.  Flavor it with essence of lemon or vanilla; just before it is done, add one teaspoonful of cream of tartar.  Powder your hands with flour, and pull it until it is perfectly white.