“Candles were burning in all of these, and standing about the table were queer little gnomes and witches, made of nuts, or of dried prunes. These little figures were souvenirs, and were distributed to all the guests. The ice-cream was in the form of little yellow pumpkins, and proved to taste quite as good as it looked. There were also more substantial viands, such as nut sandwiches, apple salad, pumpkin pie, and grape jelly. Everything had some reference to Hallowe'en or to Harvest Home, and the children were not too young to appreciate this.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
½ lb. prunes ½ cup sugar (scant) 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1½ teaspoons butter 1 tablespoon flour Wash prunes and soak in enough cold water to cover. Cook in same water until soft. Remove stones, cut prunes in quarters, and mix with sugar and lemon juice. Reduce liquor to one and one-half tablespoons. Line plate with paste, cover with prunes, pour over liquor, dot over with butter, and dredge with flour. Put on an upper crust and bake in a moderate oven.
Sources: The passage is from Carolyn Wells, Marjorie's Busy Days, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Farmer, The Boston cooking-school cook book of 1896, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — burgundy cloth, grapes stamp.