66

others in proportion as it interests yourself. You need not drink coffee if you prefer tea, of which there is none on the table. Water is a fashionable beverage and may be chosen without expatiation on the biliary derangement or nervous disorder that makes it imprudent for you to touch coffee or chocolate." It is never even pardonable to say that you do not like anything offered to you. You might as well inform the disconcerted hostess that her effort to provide for your comfort and enjoyment is a bungling mistake. As a safe rule of general application, the less you say as to the inner works of your bodily structure, the better.

Mungo Park had taken a bite of a greasy-looking cake of whitish paste dotted with black, tendered him by an African woman of whom he had begged a night's lodging, when, drawing nearer to the light, he saw that the specks were large ants.

"In great disgust I was on the point of throwing it away," he says. "But, reflecting that to do this would give pain to my kind hostess who had set before me the best of her store, I refrained, and ate it instead."

I have sat at Christian men's feasts with millionaires and savants, who might have taken a lesson in genuine refinement from the ragged traveler in the Kaffir kraal.

In the matter of hours for meals, for rising and retiring, conform without hesitation or comment to those of the hospitable household. It is underbred and selfish to keep breakfast waiting, because you have overslept yourself, or dinner or tea, while you have prolonged a drive or a walk unseasonably. If a meal is well cooked, it is injured by standing beyond the proper time of serving, and if your hosts' time is worth anything you are dishonest when you waste it.

It is quite as selfish in want of tactful regard for others' feelings, if less glaringly inconvenient, to present yourself below-stairs long before the stated breakfast-hour. You may not like to sit in your bed-chamber; the parlors may be in perfect order for your occupancy or the library tempt you to snatch a quiet hour for reading, but she is an exceptionally even-tempered hostess who does not flush uneasily at finding that you came down by the time the servants opened the house, and have made yourself at home in the living-rooms ever since. The inference is that your sleeping room was uncomfortable, or that she is indolently unmindful of your breakfastless state.

I have an anguished recollection of a long visit paid to my family by an accomplished gentleman whose every intention was purely humane, yet who descended to the parlor each morning at an hour so barbarously early that he had to light the gas to see the piano-keys on which he strummed until breakfast was ready. There is a savage consolation in the knowledge that, if he is distinguishing himself in the heavenly mansions as a player upon instruments, there is no mother with a teething baby and a headache in the room overhead.

The habits of your entertainers and such incidents of your visit as are less agreeable than you could desire or might expect, ought to be sacred from criticism while you are with them and afterward. You are visitor, not monitor. Your mission is to please, not to reform abuses. Gossip founded on the report of "one who ought to know, having been a guest of the family for weeks at a time," is so far beneath contempt that I may well be ashamed to name it as a possible outrage upon hospitality. Be explicit and courteous in answering invitations, whether you accept or decline. State at what time you will make your appearance at your friend's house and how long you will stay. If prevented by unforseen occurrences from fulfilling an engagement, send off your excuses and regrets instantly that the failure may be nothing more than disappointment. It is actual unkindness to suffer useless preparations to be made for receiving you and ministering to your welfare. If your

hostess-expectant knows your tastes and endeavors to gratify them, there will be an individuality in her arrangements that would suit no substituted guest so well as the one for whom they were primarily intended.

As a final suggestion, accept the caution not to over-praise the appointments of the establishment that widens doors and hearts to take you in. If your own home is grander, your means of entertainment in excess of your host's, the laudation smacks too strongly of patronage to agree with sensitive spirits. If your house be a cottage by comparison with your friend's mansion, the anxiety to admire all that pertains to the latter has a savor of sycophancy. Adapt yourself naturally without question or comment, to the temporary socket in which you are placed.

Do not-I entreat you by the memory of personal experiences that galled at the time like an ill-fitting shoe, and stung like sand-burrs,-exert yourself to be agreeable. The perfection of breeding is to make your entertainers believe that the illumination you bring into their home is the reflection of the light shed by their own successful hospitality.

Collected for GOOD HOUSEKEEPING.

-Marion Harland.

WISE WORDS ABOUT WOMEN. Woman is the queen of social life.-Voltaire. Domestic law should be like that of heaven: the law of heaven is love.-Hosea Ballou.

Wife, a guardian angel o'er his life presiding, doubling his pleasures, and his cares dividing.-Rogers.

If you would know the political and moral condition of a people, ask as to the condition of its women.-Aimé Martin.

To a father waxing old nothing is dearer than a daughter; sons have spirits of a higher pitch, but less inclined to sweet, endearing tenderness.-Euripides.

Happy is it to place a daughter; yet it pains a father's heart when he delivers to another's house a child, the object of his tender care.-Euripides.

I know the sum of all that makes a man, a just man happy, consists in the well-choosing of his wife; and then well to agree it does require equality of years, of birth, of fortune.-Massinger.

When one becomes indifferent to women, to children, and young people, he may know that he is superannuated, and has withdrawn from whatsoever is sweetest and purest in human existence.— Alcott.

Nothing is to be more carefully considered than plainness. In lady's attire this is the single excellence; for to be what some people call fine is the same vice in that case as to be florid in writing or speaking.—Addison.

Father, mother, child, are the human trinity, whose substance must not be divided nor its persons confounded. As well reconstruct your granite out of the grains it is disintegrated into, as society out of the dissolution of wedded love.-Bartol.

All amusements of youth to which virtuous women are not admitted are, rely on it, deleterious in their nature. All men who avoid female society have dull perceptions and are stupid, or have gross tastes and revolt against what is pure.—Thackeray.

Place the sexes in right relations of mutual respect, and a severe

morality gives that essential charm to woman which educates all learning, conversation and wit, in her rough mate; so that I have that is delicate, poetic, and self-sacrificing, breeds courtesy and thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good

women.-Emerson.

When a couple are now to be married, mutual love or union of minds is the last and most trifling consideration. If their goods and chattels can be brought to unite, their sympathetic souls are ever ready to guarantee the treaty. The gentleman's mortgaged lawn becomes enamored of the lady's marriageable grove; the match is struck up, and both parties are piously in love,-according to act of Parliament.-Goldsmith.

Original in GOOD HOUSEKEEPING.

OLD DOMINION RECIPES.
EXPERIMENTALLY PREPARED AND CAREFULLY TESTED.

ALF'S BRAINS-A DELICIOUS DISH.Wash the brains carefully and boil them until tender in salted waterwater must be boiling. Mash them into a smooth paste and season well with pepper, salt, grated onion and a little chopped parsley. Moisten the mixture slightly with melted butter, then stiffen it a little with cracker or bread crumbs; add one or two well beaten eggs to bind it, then set upon ice to become quite cold. Form the mixture into small round cakes, and fry them delicately in hot butter. Arrange them in the center of a hot platter, and place around them a border of macaroni, cooked and dressed with tomato sauce, flavored with onion.

ONION PICKLE.-Put a sufficient quantity of onions into salt and water for nine days, observing to change the water every day; then put them into jars and pour boiling salt water over them, covering them closely until cold. Next day repeat the boiling salt water. When cold, drain the onions on a hair sieve and put them into wide mouth bottles, fill up with pure, clear vinegar, putting into each bottle a slice of ginger, a blade of mace, one teaspoonful of sweet oil, which will keep the onions white. Cook well and keep in a dry place.

DELICIOUS FRITTERS.-One quart of water, butter the size of an egg; boil a few moments, stir in flour to make it as thick as mashed potatoes, pour this into a bowl and beat six eggs into it-one at a time; add salt and nutmeg, then fry in hot lard.

PICKLED MUSHROOMS.-Wash the buttons well from the dirt without peeling and let them drain. Peel the large ones. To nine quarts of mushrooms put two tablespoons of mace, one of cloves finely powdered, cayenne pepper to the taste, two or three pieces of garlic and salt; sprinkle the ingredients through, lay them in the pot in which you intend to keep them, pour boiling vinegar on them, tie them up so as to keep out the air.

BLACK CAKE THAT WILL KEEP TWO YEARS.-One pound of

butter and one pound of crushed sugar beaten to a cream; stir in twelve eggs beaten to a froth, sift in the remaining portion of the one pound of flour-the fruit having been rubbed dry with the rest; season with a teacup of brandy, one ounce of rose water or two ounces of brandy, half an ounce of cinnamon, one ounce of nutmeg, a pinch of cloves, and the rind of an orange grated; then add the fruit-two pounds of seeded raisins, two pounds of clean currants, one pound of citron cut small. The pan to be well greased with lard and lined with paper. Bake in a moderately heated oven four or five hours. Keep it well covered in a tight tin box.

TEA ROLLS.-Make them up at twelve o'clock in the day. One quart of flour, one-half pint of new milk and one gill of yeast-one teaspoonful of sugar in the yeast is an improvement. When light, work in a tablespoonful of butter and the yolk of two eggs, then set it again to rise for half an hour before baking. Roll them out, and make into any shape you prefer.

FIG PUDDING-DELICIOUS.-One pound of figs, one pound of beef suet, one pound of bread crumbs, one pound brown sugar, six eggs. Chop the figs fine, along with the bread crumbs; boil two hours in a mould, well buttered; eat with butter sauce. Any other fruit may be used in place of figs.

ALMOND CREAM.--Blanch and pulverize one quart of almondsthis should be done in a mortar-a little new milk added to reduce the nuts to a fine paste. Use this with one gallon of cream, mixing the almonds in when the cream is nearly frozen.

CREAM PUFFS.-Ten ounces of lard, ten ounces of flour, one pint of milk, one large pennyweight of hartshorn, twelve eggs, onehalf teaspoonful of batter to each puff. Boil the milk and scald the flour; add the eggs and hartshorn. Quick oven.

BLACKBERRY CORDIAL.-To every quart of juice add one-half pound of white sugar. Boil and skim well, when cold add one quart of whiskey to every gallon of juice and sugar. Add spices while boiling. Medicinal.

TOMATO BEEF.-Cut up three pounds of beef and seven moderate sized tomatoes, one onion; stew slowly, add salt, a little clove; just before it is done put in a little butter, half a gill of catsup. This will be good heated over next day.

MOCK BOLOGNA SAUSAGE.-One part of beef, two parts pork, one part of beef suet, a little garlic, sage, black pepper, a small portion of cayenne pepper. Season to taste. Stuff tightly in cloth bags and hang them in a dry place.

POTATO SALAD.-Slice thinly eight or ten good sized Irish potatoes (boiled and cold), chop finely one good sized apple, one and a half small onions, rinse and chop the leaves of a large handful of green parsley. Spread a layer of the potato in a chopping tray, sprinkle liberally with salt, then half the parsley, apple and onions, then the rest of the potato, then more salt and the other half of the parsley, apple and onion; pour half a teacup of sweet oil or melted butter over the whole, with a small cup of vinegar. Mix the whole carefully so as not to break the potatoes.

CHELSEA SAUCE.-Twenty-four ripe tomatoes, eight onions, six peppers, eight coffee cups of good vinegar, eight tablespoons of sugar, eight spoonfuls of salt, one spoonful cinnamon, one tablespoon of allspice, one nutmeg, one spoonful of cloves. Boil all together well, and seal while hot. Superior to tomato catsup.

OYSTER SOUP.-Put on in a brass kettle one quart of oysters; let them cook until they are nearly done without boiling hard (which makes them tough); stir in a piece of butter about as large as a walnut, rub it thoroughly into one and a half tablespoons of flour, add one quart of rich milk. When it boils up once the soup is done. Season with pepper and salt. Pour it into the tureen on a quantity of small pieces of bread. This will be enough for six or seven persons.

MOCK OYSTERS OR CORN PATTIES.-Mix half a pint of grated or shaved green corn with three tablespoons of milk, one teacup of flour, one-half teacup of melted butter, one egg. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake quickly as griddle cakes.

SALT SULPHUR MUFFINS.-One pint of yeast, one-half pint of water, six eggs, one pound of butter. These must be worked together about twelve o'clock into a dough, just stiff enough not to stick to the fingers. Half an hour must be allowed, before it begins

to bake, for the muffins to rise. Make like large biscuit. BATTER BREAD.-One pint of meal, one quart rich milk, three eggs beaten well; baked with a brisk fire and sent in quickly. THE BEST CHICKEN SOUP.-To a chicken, or any equal quantity of fresh meat, add one gallon of water, an onion, a slice of bacon, one tablespoonful of flour, a teaspoonful of pepper, a teaspoonful of salt, and a bunch of thyme or parsley. Beat up in a tureen the yolks of two eggs, with a cup of milk and a small lump of butter. Pour the soup, when done, in the tureen on this boiling hot.

SPLENDID OMELETTE.-From four to eight very fresh eggs; break them singly and carefully. When they are sufficiently whisked, pour them through a sieve and resume the beating until they are very light; add to them half a teaspoonful of salt, season with pepper. Dissolve in a small frying-pan two ounces of butter, pour in the eggs, and as soon as the omelette is well risen and firm throughout, slide it into a hot dish, fold it together like a turnover, and serve at once.

APPLE CUSTARD.-Lay a crust in your plates; slice apples thin and half fill your plates; pour over them a custard made of four eggs and one quart of milk, sweetened and seasoned to your taste.

SUBSTITUTE FOR CREAM IN COFFEE.-Beat the white of an egg, put to it a small lump of butter, and pour the coffee into it gradually, stirring it so that it will not curdle. It is difficult to distinguish this from fresh cream.

-Mary Stuart Smith.

MRS. MACKEY is amazing London with her dinners. Her latest sensation in that direction is a rose dinner. The table-a large one is literally a bed of roses two feet deep, with spaces reserved for the plates.

we will see what will happen then." Fay's curiosity was much excited by this speech, and she was lost in wondering what she should have in exchange for her forfeited possessions. For a while all went well, but there came at last an unfortunate day, when she was so eager to begin the play she had invented, of William Tell shooting the apple from Albert's head, which youth was to be represented by the clothes pole, that she rushed out without putting in their place the trinkets she had thought it prudent to take off before leaving the house. When she next wanted her gold bracelets and coral pin they were gone, but in the boxes where they usually reposed were-Beans! was more careful for a while, but by degrees her efforts to keep her things in order relaxed. Gradually, alas! her wardrobe was disappearing, and beans stared at her out from boxes and bags, and cupboards and drawers.

After this Fay

"Oh, how I wish that beans had never grown!" cried she, in despair. It makes me furious to meet them everywhere.”

"You shall have the opportunity to win your things back," said her mother. Every day, when you do not leave anything out of place, you shall have one article restored to you."

At the end of the month Fay had regained all her possessions, and if any one asked her what had caused so disorderly a girl to repent of her evil ways, she answered-" Beans!"

"Oh, Sally," exclaimed Mrs. Chester, when this story was read, "you have given your own experience!"

"But, mamma," cried Sally, "how could you betray me? I thought nobody would ever suspect me!" Meanwhile Mrs. Fortescue was claiming a fagot from Rodney Owens.

"Mine can only be called a 'single stick,' he replied. "It is a Riddle that nobody has been able to guess, and I fondly hope I may find an answer to-night."

He read the following lines:

Riddle.

"They sink in my mysterious First,

It is my Second that they see;

My Whole, alas! oh, golden fair!

Will never more be seen by me!"

"It is mysterious indeed!" exclaimed Mrs. Chester.

shall leave it to Sally and her father to guess."

"I

under the six of clubs, and so on. These cards are to form the foundation cards, or “starters," as I call them, for a series of families, to be built up without regard to suit. But they cannot be built upon till the whole row has been filled by cards from below, and you see we now have three gaps-you want an eight, a two, and another seven. You must then deal out eight more cards in the lower row, putting one on this king, one in the next gap, in the next, on the ace, and so on, but you cannot use any of these cards till all the eight cards are laid down, then use from them any card that can fill the gaps. When this middle row of foundation cards is complete, and not till then (you may have to deal out the eight cards a number of times), pile up in ascending sequence, not following suit, a six on a five, an eight on a seven, whenever an available card You appears after dealing out the eight cards on the lower row. thus have eight separate “starters" for eight families, and when each pile is ready you finish it by taking the card above it and putting it on top of the pile. For instance, finish this first pile by putting on top the four of diamonds above it, and so on.

Mrs. Fortescue asked Aspasia for her fagot, while Mrs. Chester and Sally were writing down the rules for the "Patience."

The Tea-Kettle Game,

said Miss Brunton, is the name of the fagot that I bring for my share, and you will have to stir round, for it is one of the games where one of the company must go out of the room, while the rest think of some word that has a number of meanings-a word that has various spellings as well as meanings-but the same pronunciation. The person who has gone out is called in and must ask a

you seen a mermaid?"

"While you are puzzling your brains over this," said Mrs. Chester, "you may as well try my fagot at the same time. It is only an Anagram that nobody has been able to guess. I have worked over it three evenings. The word given me is 'Toadspine,' and I can make everything else out of it but a word."

"The trouble of these anagrams," said Hector Brunton, "is that they are often given to you spelt wrong. Now I was coming out very well with, Florence Nightingale' for one of the anagrams in the Christmas number of GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, but was bothered because I was given 'Flit on charming angel,' instead of 'cheering angel,' and so I had not ee's enough."

"Now you have told us," said Sally Chester; "but then I never should have guessed."

Cecilia Owens brought for her fagot a new game of "Patience," called "Constitution," that is quite different from the game so called in Dick's "Book of Patience." "It came from my German book, and I am so fond of it I play it every night." You might call it the

German Constitution.

You begin by laying down eight cards in a row, then you leave a space for another row, and lay out eight more cards below. From this lower row take any card that ranks one higher than a card in the upper row, regardless of suit. For instance,

must be brought into each answer many times, in its various meanings; only, instead of the word itself, the word "tea-kettle" must be put in its place."

"I don't understand one bit," said Sally Chester, "you have to put the words in, and you don't have to put them in!" "I will give an instance," explained Aspasia. "Suppose we take the word 'mean.' Suppose you ask me why I look so sad just now? I should want to reply, that you were very mean to notice my mien, when I was only thinking of the golden mean and how I should express my meaning. But I should say, you were very tea kettle to notice my tea-kettle, when I was only thinking of the golden tea-kettle and how I should express my teakettle-ing."

66

How would any one ever guess?" exclaimed Mrs. Chester. "I will go out," said Rodney Owens, "I will make the first trial."

There was quite a discussion upon words, but it was hastily decided to try "boy."

"It has not much variety of meaning," said Aspasia, “there is also 'buoy' to be sure."

"And every variety of boys," said Mr. Fortescue. Rodney was called in. He addressed his first question to Sally Chester. "Where have you been walking this afternoon, Miss Chester?" he asked. She replied:" I took a small tea-kettle by the hand and we walked to the beach to see the tea-kettle splashing about in the most tea-kettle-ant manner."

"That sounds like a pic-nic," said Rodney. "Let us see, you might have taken a pail, but no, you wouldn't have seen

it splashing in a pale-ant manner. I must pass to the next. Mr. Chester, what do you think of the architecture of the new Town Hall?"

"Oh," said Mr. Chester, "I took my little tea-kettle to see it to-day, and decided it was the worst specimen of flam-tea-kettleant architecture we have had this long time." Everybody exclaimed; of course Rodney guessed on "flamboyant," and Mr. Chester had to go out.

"How could you give yourself away so?" exclaimed Sally, "you deserve to go out."

"Why not 'ail' and 'ale?"" suggested Mrs. Fortescue, and Mr. Chester was called in, and first questioned Mrs. Fortescue.

"I need not ask how you are," he exclaimed, "since you appear so well. But, do tell me if you are as well as you appear?"

"I suffer from a little tea-kettle," answered Mrs. Fortescue, "perhaps it is because I had not any tea-kettle for dinner." "Ail, to be sick; ale, malt liquor," exclaimed Mr. Chester promptly.

"How could you be so quick?" asked Mrs. Fortescue. "How could you be so slow?" replied Mr. Chester, "as to give me the first words in the column of the old 'primer.'"

A very hard word was discovered for Mrs. Fortescue, but we have no space to tell how long she was in guessing it, and afterwards Mrs. Chester declared it was time to go.

But we have not claimed all our fagots," said Mrs. Fortescue. "Sally must give hers next time," said Mrs. Chester, "when I depend upon your meeting at my house."

"Each of our fagots has been such a bundle," said Sally "that we have had too many."

"But can 'fagot' ever mean one stick?" asked Mr. Fortescue. "That is a question I was going to answer," said Hector, "with an essay on the word, for my fagot, I had a note from a young lady spelling the word with two g's, so I thought I must look it up-"

"Oh, Mr. Brunton !" cried Sally, "how could you betray me."

"Only to defend you," said Hector, while Mrs. Chester reproved her daughter for always betraying herself. "I find that Mary Cowden Clarke spells the word twice with two g's, where the word is used by Shakespeare, in her Concordance."

"She is safe authority," said Sally triumphantly.

"But the dictionaries all give it with only one g," continued Hector, "Johnson, Worcester and Webster. Webster allows for one of its meanings a single stick, suitable or designed for fuel;' the other authorities speak only of a bundle of sticks.' I am pleased to find, that though both Worcester and Webster derive it from Greek and Latin, Richardson quotes it as coming from the Anglo-Saxon 'fegan,' to join; and Johnson's first derivation is from 'fagod,' Welsh."

"Oh, I am thankful!" exclaimed Mrs. Fortescue, "for I conclude you would never have allowed us to use it, Mr. Hector, if it had come from-"

"Fax, the Latin for torch? Never!" said Hector contemptuously.

66

And there would have been an end to our Fagot Parties," said Mrs. Chester.

"But, Mr. Chester," asked Mrs. Fortescue, "will you not close this with your conundrum?"

"I was just thinking of one," said Mr. Chester, "Hector succeeded so well in telling us all his facts in a few words, it reminded me of the essence of wit and this

Conundrum:

"Why is wit like a Chinese lady's foot? Because brevity is the sole of it."

"We had better leave," said Mrs. Chester.

Original in GoOD HOUSEKEEPING.

CRUMBS OF COMFORT.

"IN DOING THE DUTY THAT LIES NEAREST THEE."
WISH I knew which it was," sighed Mrs.
Bristow wearily, as she rescued Ted's au-
tograph book from the baby's clutches
and looked at the pithy sentiment in his
teacher's firm, clear writing.

"Miss Leonard's duty is very plain ;to come down to a comfortable breakfast with whose preparation she has had nothing to do; to read the morning paper at her leisure, and walk easily to school before nine o'clock. And after four she can bundle all those children out of doors and rid both her hands and her mind of them. She has her evenings, and her Saturdays, and vacations. It is very easy for her to see what duty lies nearest her. I wish my way was as plain."

Mrs. Bristow was really too sensible to believe that teachers were rid of their pupils when the school-room door was locked, but she felt just now as if everybody had an easier time than herself, and she felt very worn and weary as she proceeded to clear the dinner-table. She did most things wearily nowadays. She felt pulled about and driven beyond her strength and patience; and she fully realized that her voice was taking on a sharper tone day by day; that her house had never seemed so shabby, and her children so wayward as they had this summer.

There were so many things she wanted to do, so many things she must do, that it was indeed hard to tell which duty was nearest. The fall house cleaning was not finished, and she felt as if she ought to improve these warm, bright days to do it. But there were the children's clothes needed faster than she could finish them, and she had dropped Ted's knickerbockers to commence a sorely needed school dress for Minnie, while it did not seem as if baby could get along another day without his new aprons.

She ought to make some calls; the sewing society claimed a portion of her time, and she did not like to refuse; her friends were beautifying their homes with Kensington work and "crazy" sofa-pillows and table-covers, while she had just the same old tidies and ornaments she had made before she was married. Only that very morning Mrs. Kimberly had called, arrayed in pretty new fall suit, to know what Mrs. Bristow would do toward the bazar the ladies of the church were contemplating, and she had promised to lend a hand with the comfortables and mattress covers, and send something for the supper.

they parted at the door, "we really need you to take charge "You have such executive ability," said Mrs. Kimberly as of some part of the work. How do you accomplish so much with your family? Your children always look like daisies. You are a marvel of energy and strength. I quite envy you."

maid in her kitchen, sailed complacently away to the next And Mrs. Kimberly, with not a child in the world, and a place on her list, while Mrs. Bristow, with a guilty consciousness that she had been receiving unmerited praise, returned to her kitchen to find that the heart of her forenoon was gone, and she had not now time to prepare the pudding she had planned to supplement the rather scanty dinner. The baby, -almost too large to be called so, for he was nearly three years old, had tired of the playthings she had hastily thrust before him when the doorbell rang, and having followed the kitten out of doors had probably encountered Mrs. Kimberly at the gate, looking like anything but a "daisy," unless it was a very tumbled one.

It was then too late to help matters, however, so she had