Always select the best fruit, as it is the cheapest, and requires less sugar; and where every piece of fruit or every berry is perfect, there is no waste. Raspberries are apt to harbor worms and therefore the freshly picked berries are safest.

BLUEBERRIES

Wash and pick over carefully, drain off all the water, sprinkle powdered sugar over them and serve with cream or milk.

RASPBERRIES

Pick over carefully, set on ice, and serve in a dish unsugared. Strawberries may be served as above.

RASPBERRIES AND CURRANTS

These berries, mixed, make a very palatable dish. Set on ice until ready to serve. Then pile in a mound, strewing plenty of pulverized sugar among them. As you do this, garnish the base with white or black currants (blackberries look pretty also) in bunches. Eat with cream or wine.

STRAWBERRIES

Pick nice ripe berries, pile them in a fruit dish. Strew plenty of pulverized sugar over them and garnish with round slices or quarters of oranges, also well sugared.

BANANAS

May be sliced according to fancy, either round or lengthwise. Set on ice until required. Then add sugar, wine or orange juice. In serving, dish out with a tablespoon of whipped cream.

CHILLED BANANAS

Cut ice-cold bananas down lengthwise, and lay these halves on a plate with a quarter of a lemon and a generous teaspoon of powdered sugar. Eat with a fork or spoon after sprinkling with lemon juice and dipping in sugar.

GRAPE FRUIT

Cut in half, with a sharp knife, remove seeds, and sprinkle with sugar, or loosen pulp; cut out pithy white centre; wipe knife after each cutting, so that the bitter taste may be avoided. Pour in white wine or sherry and sprinkle with powdered sugar, and let stand several hours in ice-chest to ripen. Serve cold in the shell. Decorate with maraschino cherry.

ORANGES

Cut an orange in half crosswise. Place on an attractive dish, scoop out the juice and pulp with a spoon and sweeten if necessary.

PINEAPPLE

Peel the pineapple, dig out all the eyes, then cut from the core downward, or chop in a chopping-bowl, and set on ice until ready to serve. Then sugar the fruit well, and form into a mound in a dish. Garnish the base well with leaves or small fruit of any kind. You may squeeze the juice of one orange over all.

PEACHES

Peel fine, ripe freestone peaches. Cover plentifully with pulverized sugar, and serve with whipped cream. The cream should be ice cold. Peaches should not be sliced until just before dining, or they will be very apt to change color.

WATERMELONS

Use only those melons that are perfectly ripe. Do not select those that are very large in circumference; a rough melon with a bumpy surface is the best. Either cut in half or plug and fill with the following: Put on to boil some pale sherry or claret and boil down to quite a thick syrup with sugar. Pour this into either a plugged melon or over the half-cut melon, and lay on ice for a couple of hours before serving. If you use claret you may spice it while boiling with whole spices.

SNOWFLAKES

Grate a large cocoanut into a fruit dish, and mix it thoroughly and lightly with pulverised sugar. Serve with whipped or plain sweet cream.