A RAINBOW ANNOUNCEMENT LUNCHEON
"OH, Bettina, how lovely!" cried the ten guests in a chorus, as Ruth and
Bettina ushered them into the softly lighted dining-room. Not one had
had even a glimpse of the luncheon table before, for Ruth had been
entertaining them on the porch while Bettina put on the finishing
touches. It all seemed a burst of soft rainbow colors. "What is it?"
cried someone. "How did you ever get the rainbow effect?"
"Let's not examine it too closely," said Bettina. "You know a rainbow
after all is nothing but drops of water with the sun shining through,
and maybe my rainbow table has a prosy explanation, too."
From the low mass of variegated garden flowers in the center--pink,
yellow, lavender, orange, blue, and as many others as the girls could
find--ran strips of soft tulle in rainbow colors. The strips were
attached at the outer end to the dainty butterflies which perched
lightly on the tulle covered candy cups. These candy cups held pink,
lavender and green Jordan almond candies. More butterflies in all sizes
and colors hovered among the flowers. Upon the plain white name cards,
little butterflies had been outlined in black and decorated in butterfly
colors. Ruth and Bettina had cut with the scissors around this outline
and then, when it had been cut almost away, had folded back the
butterfly so that it stood up on the card, as ready for flight as its
brothers and sisters.
"Aren't they cunning?" exclaimed Barbara, taking her butterfly from her
favor cup. "Goodness, it's attached to something!" Pulling gently by
the rainbow tulle to which the butterfly had been pasted, she drew forth
from the greenery in the center a little golden bag. It was in reality a
little fat bag of soft yellow silk tied with gold cord and holding
something that, seen through the mesh, appeared to be--gold?
The other girls, in great excitement, drew forth their little bags.
"Rice!" declared Mary, "though it looks yellow!"
"It's the bag of gold at the foot of the rainbow!" exclaimed Ruth, with
flushed cheeks. "Discovered by----"
"Harry Harrison and Alice!" cried the girls, laughing almost
hysterically. For one small card which read, "Discovered by" and the two
names, in gold letters, was tied to the little bag by the gold cord.
"Alice, how did you ever manage to keep it a secret?" asked someone.
"Well, it would have been harder if you had all known Harry, but you
see, we haven't been with the crowd much lately, have we? Now admit it!
You haven't even missed me!"
"But you're more of a butterfly than any of the rest of us. And the
limits of the old crowd don't always bound your flutterings."
"I'm not a butterfly anymore," said Alice. "I suppose I'll have a
butterfly wedding (Harry will detest it, but he'll have to give in that
once), but after that I expect to be as domestic as Bettina here, though
not such a success at it, probably. Aren't these orange baskets the
prettiest things?"
The girls, in their excitement, had almost forgotten to eat, but now
they looked down at their plates. Fruit cups in orange baskets, with
handles of millinery wire twisted with pink, green, yellow and violet
tulle, added to the rainbow effect. The baskets were placed on paper
doilies on tea plates, and were artistically lined with mint leaves.
"It looks too pretty to eat," said Dorothy.
"Ruth will feel hurt if you don't like it, but I know you will," said
Bettina. "She prepared this course, and made most of the table
decorations, too."
"And didn't you wish that you were announcing something yourself, Ruth?"
asked Mary. "Although I don't believe the crowd could stand two such
surprises! We've known Fred and you so long that your engagement seems
the natural thing, but when a perfectly strange man like Mr. Harrison
happens by, and helps himself to one of our number--well, it certainly
takes my breath away! Where did you first meet him, Alice? Was it love
at first sight?"
"Love at first sight? Bob introduced us--here, in this very house, and I
thought--well--I thought Harry the most disagreeably serious man I'd
ever had the misfortune to meet! And he thought me the most disagreeably
frivolous girl he had ever seen! So our feud began, and of course we had
to see each other to fight it out!"
"And then comes Bettina's rainbow luncheon to show us how serious the
feud proved to be," laughed Barbara. "What? More courses, Bettina? This
is a beautiful luncheon! I wonder who'll be the next to discover the
treasure at the foot of the rainbow?"
The menu consisted of:
Fruit Cups in Orange Baskets
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Cream of Celery Soup Whipped Cream
Salt Wafers
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Tuna Moulds Egg Sauce
Potatoes a la Bettina
Green Peppers Stuffed with Creamed Cauliflower
Rolls Butter
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Head Lettuce, Russian Dressing
Thin Sandwiches in Fancy Shapes
Marshmallow Cream
Coffee
BETTINA'S RECIPES
(All measurements are level)
=Tuna Loaf= (Eight portions)
1-1/2 C-tuna
1 C-fresh bread crumbs
2 eggs (just the yolks may be used)
1 t-lemon juice
1 t-chopped green pepper
1 t-salt
1/4 t-paprika
Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly, picking the fish apart with
a silver fork. Mould firmly in a loaf. Roll in flour, and place in a
buttered bread pan. Dot with butter, and bake thirty minutes in a
moderate oven. This same recipe may be distributed among fancy
individual moulds, filled half full. Arrange a star-shaped piece of
pimento, green pepper, beet or egg in the bottom of a fancy aluminum
mould. An attractive design may be made by putting the star cut from any
vegetable with radiating pieces of any other kind of vegetable of a
different color. Place the design firmly on the fish. Set the moulds in
a pan of hot water and bake until the mixture is firmly set. (About
thirty minutes.) Remove from the oven, let moulds stand three minutes,
and then, with the assistance of a knife, slip them from the pan,
unmould all the moulds in one flat pan, and keep them hot until needed.
Do not forget that the mould must be thoroughly buttered before using.
When ready to serve, make a regular vegetable white sauce (two T-butter,
2 T-flour, 1 C-milk, 1/4 t-salt). When ready to serve and while steaming
hot, add one beaten egg yoke. The hot sauce will cook the egg. Pour
around the mould.