Contributions to this department will be gladly received. Accepted items will be paid for at reasonable rates. Vegetable Tarts and Pies Elizabeth Goose of Boston bestowed a great blessing upon American posterity when she induced her good man, Thomas Fleet, to publish, in 1719, "The Mother Goose Melodies," many of which rhymes dated back to a similar publication printed in London two hundred years before. Is it strange that, with this ancestral nursery training, the cry against the use of pastry goes unheeded, when as children, we, too, have sung to us, over and over, the songs of tarts and pies? The word tart comes from the Latin word _tortus_, because tarts were originally in twisted shapes, and every country seems to have adopted them into their national menus. That they were toothsome in those early days is shown in these same nursery rhymes, and, that tarts seemed to have been relished by royalty and considered worthy of theft is evinced in the rhymes, "The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts." and, "Little King Boggen he built a fine hall, Pie-crust and pastry-crust that was the wall." Again this ancient lore speaks of "Five and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie," and, too, there was that child wonder, "Little Jack Horner" who, with the same unerring instinct of a water wizard with a willow twig, could, by the sole means of his thumb, locate and extricate, upon the tip of the same, a plum from the Christmas pie. American tarts and pies are in a class of their own. Pies were very closely allied to pioneer, and the Colonial housewife of early days was forced to concoct fillings out of sweetened vegetables, such as squash, sweet potatoes, and even some were made of vinegar. Yet the children still doted on these tempting tarts, pies and turnovers, for were they not trotted in babyhood on a "Cock horse to Banbury Cross, To see what Tommy can buy: A penny white loaf, a penny white cake, And a two-penny apple pie." The next time you have a few varieties of vegetables left over, or wish a dainty luncheon side dish, try making a tray of vegetable tarts with various fillings, and they will prove as fascinating to choose from as a tray of French pastries. While I have worked out these modern recipes in tempting ways of serving left-overs using common vegetables, I will lay all pastry honors to our fore-mothers, who passed on to us the art of pie-making. Proof as to the harmlessness of pies in diet is shown in the fine constitution of our American doughboy, who is certainly a great credit to the heritage of pastry handed down by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The moral of this discourse is that, "The child is father of the man," and men dote on pies. Potato Tarts a la Gratin Line round muffin pans with pastry circles as for other preserve tarts, and fill with the following: