s these plates, replacing them with service plates as she does so,
and brings in the soup. This the hostess serves and the maid carries
about. While this is being eaten--celery or olives being passed after the
guests are helped--the maid slips out in the kitchen to dish up the
vegetables unless these are already in the warmer. Returning, she removes
the soup-plates, never taking more than two at a time. She then brings on
the joint or roast, placing it before the host, who proceeds to serve it.
(If oysters are served first, a fish course is generally omitted; indeed,
so many courses tax one's resources too severely.) The maid carries about
the dinner plates, removing the service plate with the right hand and
placing the other with the left. She then passes the vegetables. The
serving begins with the lady at the host's right hand. If the piece de
resistance is a turkey, white and dark meat and a portion of dressing are
placed on each plate; gravy and the vegetables, then cranberry or currant
jelly, are passed. Here the waitress should refill water glasses.

The plates are then removed for the salad course, and the table cleared.
This should be ready on the plates, and kept where it will be perfectly
cold. While this is being brought on, the hostess will start dishes of
salted nuts and bonbons down the table, the guests passing them. After the
salad the plates are removed and the dessert brought in. This may be a
mould of ice cream or a pudding; pie is seldom or never served. This the
host or hostess serves. The coffee service may be brought in, and the
hostess pours it; little cakes or wafers, or mints, are usually passed
with it; then the maid is excused from further service. The hostess always
gives the signal for leaving the table by a slight nod toward the lady on
her husband's right, and rising.

[702 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

Requirements.--A dinner of this kind requires a serving-table or sideboard
where china and silver may be in readiness. Such an aid is even more
indispensable where the hostess serves the meal herself. Many very
enjoyable "company dinners" are served where the hostess is also the cook,
and she and her husband serve. If one has daughters they should be taught
how to serve, and may rise from the table to change plates and bring in
courses with perfect propriety. In such case, the soup is served at the
table and, as it is awkward to pass without spilling, some one should
carry it about if more than two