glasses of water.
3 cups of sugar.
1 cup of raspberry juice.

Roll the lemons till they are soft; cut them and squeeze the juice
out. Put the sugar in a little pan with a glass of water, and boil
it two minutes; add this to the lemon and raspberry juice, and
strain it; add the rest of the water; serve with broken ice in a
glass pitcher.

"Be sure and boil the sugar and water together, Mildred, whenever you
make any kind of drink like lemonade; it is so much better than if you
put in plain sugar. When it is all done, if it is not quite sweet
enough, you can add a little powdered sugar without hurting it."

"Mother, we forgot the surprise! You remember, 'every luncheon must have
a surprise,' you said; see, here it is in the book."

"Dear me, so I did! What shall it be, Mildred? I can't seem to think of
another thing for that picnic."

"Neither can I."

"Stuffed dates!" exclaimed Mother Blair, presently. "I knew there must
be something, and those will be exactly right."

STUFFED DATES

Wash the dates and wipe them dry. Open one side and take out the
stone; in its place press in half a pecan or other nut; close the
edges, and roll each date in powdered sugar.

"I do hope there will be some of those over for us," said Mildred, as
she put her book away. "Those children are going to have a _wonderful_
lunch!"

Brownie could not imagine what her birthday surprise was to be. She
could not help guessing, but she never once was "warm." When Saturday
came, and the boys and girls arrived in their every-day clothes and even
kept on their wraps in the parlor, she did not know what to think; and
there was actually no lunch for them in the dining-room! She began to
look very sober.

But when everybody had come, Mother Blair said: "Won't you go upstairs?"
and Mildred and Jack ushered them up to the attic.

It was such a lovely surprise! The big green carpets were spread down on
the bare floor, and all around were set little green trees in pots. The
canary was hung up out of sight, and he was singing as hard as he could.
It was not a bit too cold, for the door had been kept open all day and
the sun was shining in at the window.

And just then appeared Mother Blair, and Norah, and Jack, and Mildred,
all carrying baskets, which they put down on the floor. Then the picnic
began!

There was first the cloth to spread down on the grass, and paper plates
and napkins to be passed