" Pooh! " I hear you say in disgust. " As if any man couldn't make lemonade without being told." But as this book may fall into the hands of a Hottentot or Malay or some other hot-house variety of bachelor, I will set down the proportion of the juice of a lemon to two tablespoonfuls of sugar and one-half pint of water as being a desirable one. This may be varied by using the juice of orange, lime, or grape-fruit, in which case, of course, it will be the other sort of Ade (not Hoosier).

An abuse of ice at once destroys the effect desired, besides being dangerous. A liquid set on ice and slowly chilled is far more to be recommended than the drink in which ice floats, but it is not everyone who will admit this truth. Than plain lemonade, made from the juice of the lemon, sweetened sparsely with sugar and diluted with water, and finally cooled on ice, there is no drink more acceptable and cooling in the heat of the day. It ranks before the long list of acidulated drinks and gaseous mineral waters, but it, too, falls into disrepute when too liberally imbibed. It is said to be lowering in its effects, but such an assertion is nonsense, unless, as is said, it is drunk too freely.

Taking the average, it would seem the plainer drinks have a larger share of popularity, and soda and milk is one of the very first favorites. To be perfect it requires a can of ice to be placed in the milk and that the soda should have lain for some time on the ice block. These are the simplest, perhaps best, and certainly cheapest of the drinks made at home by the unskilled amateur.