o it. It will be fit to cook in ten days,
but may be kept without injury for two months, when the pickle should
be reboiled and well skimmed. The meat should be covered with brine
and the pan have a cover.

We have put legs of mutton into this pickle, and can assure the reader
it is an excellent mode of cooking this joint; and as it is one which
frequently makes its appearance at table where the family is large, it
is sometimes a pleasant method of varying the dish. It is the best way
of any we know of, for curing tongues; it has the great advantage of
being always ready for use, and you are not fearful of the
carelessness of servants, who not unfrequently forget to look to the
salting-pans.

We can recommend a dish not often seen at table, and that is a sirloin
of beef put into this pickle for about a fortnight. It is infinitely
superior either to the round or edgebone, and certainly not so
extravagant as the last-named joint.

A friend has told us that we should procure some juniper-berries to
put into our ham-pickle, but there were none to be purchased in our
neighborhood, and as we were quite ignorant of the flavor they might
impart, we did not trouble ourselves to get them. I am fond of old
proverbs, and as our hams and bacon were always good, we determined to
"let well alone."

CHAPTER X1.

OUR BREAD.

Any lady who thinks of trying a country residence, should see that it
possess a small brick oven, for "home-made" bread ought always to be
considered indispensable in the country. We did not discover that our
new home was without one till after we entered it. We were laughed at
by our landlord when we mentioned our want of this convenience.

"Why!" cried he, "there is a baker's shop not five minutes walk from
the house."

"Never mind," said I, "how near the baker's shop may be; we mean to
have all our bread made at home. It will be, we are sure, better to do
so, both on the score of health and economy."

"But I really," said the gentleman, "cannot afford to build you an
oven; it would cost me $100 at the least."

At this, H., who had resided for a short time in a house where the
bread was made at home, laughed, and said, "Really, Mr. L., you need
not fear that we wish to put you to so much expense, and it is perhaps
but fair that we should meet you half-way in the matter; so if you
will find labor we will find materials: or reverse it, if you please."

Mr. L. remembered that he had in some outhouse