ant, of course, than the made
candle-holders--but not to my thinking a whit the handsomer--after the
paper-cutters had done their work.

Their work was turning white paper into fringe and lace. Fringed strips
wound all over and about, hid the foundation wood. Paper tulips, deftly
fashioned, held the tin rings in ambush--with clusters of lacy leaves
pendant below. Sometimes a paper rose tipped each arm-end--sometimes
also, there were pendant sprays of pea-shaped blossoms. How they were
made, with nothing beyond scissors, pen-knives for crimping, and the
palm of the hand for mold, I confess I do not understand--but I know
they were marvels. The marvels required a special knack, of course--also
much time and patience. Wherefore those who had it, exercised it in
scraps of leisure as paper came to hand, laying away the results
against the next wedding even though none were imminent. Leaves and the
round lace-edged pieces to go under cakes, it was easy thus to keep.
Flowers, roses, tulips and so on, had a trick of losing shape--besides,
although so showy, they were really much easier to make.

It took nice contrivance to make table-room--but double thicknesses of
damask falling to the floor either side hid all roughness in the
foundation. Shape depended much upon the size of the supper-room--if it
were but an inclosed piazza, straight length was imperative. But in a
big square or parallelogram, one could easily achieve a capital _H_--or
else a letter _Z_. _Z_ was rather a favorite in that it required less
heavy decoration, yet gave almost as much space. A heart-cake for either
tip, a stack at each acute angle, with the bride's cake midway the stem,
flanked either hand by bowls of syllabub and boiled custard, made a fine
showing. A letter _H_ demanded four heart-cakes--one for each end, also
four stacks, and crowded the bride and her party along the joining bar.

Heart-cakes were imperative to any wedding of degree. Local tinsmiths
made the moulds for them--they were deeply cleft, and not strictly
classic of outline. But, well and truly baked, frosted a glistening
white, then latticed and fringed with more frosting, dribbled on
delicately from the point of a tube, they were surely good to look at.
If the bride's cake were white all through, the heart-pans were usually
filled with gold-cake batter--thus white and yolk of eggs had equal
honor. More commonly though, the most part of wedding cake was pound
cake in the beginning-