Rub three quarters of a pound of butter into a pound of flour. Take a
half pint of boiling water and pour over a pound and a half of light
brown sugar in a bowl; dissolve a small teaspoonful of soda in two
large spoons of hot water. Add flour _only_ sufficient to roll out very
thin; cut it out in oblong shapes with a jagging iron; bake _quickly in
a hot oven_. In New York they mark these cakes with mottos,--Christmas
and New Year’s.