ay in a deep hot dish, and pour
over real melted butter, made with butter, hot water, salt, pepper,
lemon juice or vinegar, and a dash of tabasco. Send to table covered--a
poached egg chilled has lost its charm. Or you may serve the eggs on
squares of hot, well-buttered toast, which have been sprinkled thickly
with grated cheese, then set for a minute inside a hot oven. Served
thus, pass the melted butter with them, as if poured over, they might be
too rich for some palates.

_Egg Fours_: Cut hard-boiled eggs in four lengthwise, mix yolks with an
equal bulk of sardines, drained, freed of skin and bone, and minced
fine. Season with salt, pepper, lemon juice, or vinegar, and olive oil.
Add minced olives if you like. The mixture must be soft, but not too
soft to shape well. Shape it into small ovals, using two spoons, and lay
an oval in each quarter of the whites. Put very narrow strips of pimento
on the ovals, then sprinkle them thickly with grated cheese--Edam is
good for such use. Set in a baking dish and cook two to four minutes in
a hot oven. If wanted extra tasty, as for a relish before dinner, set
the fours on narrow strips of toast, spread with made mustard,
well-mixed with finely minced very sour cucumber pickle.

Bacon sliced thin, fried crisp without scorching, and finely minced can
take the place of sardines. Indeed, in making fours the widest latitude
prevails--you can vary flavors and proportions almost infinitely. Onion,
even a suspicion of garlic, tabasco, Cayenne vinegar, walnut catsup, or
Worcester can be added. Capers mixed through the mass make it
wonderfully piquant. But things which need to be crisply fresh, such as
celery and lettuce, must be let severely alone.

_Stuffed Eggs_: Staple for picnics, and barbecues. Boil twenty minutes,
throw instantly in cold water, and shell immediately. Halve, mash yolks
while hot with a plentiful seasoning of butter, pepper, salt, a little
onion juice, capers or bigger pickle finely minced, and pimentos cut
small. Work the seasoning well through, then shape into balls yolk-size,
put each between two half-whites, and fasten together with a couple of
tooth picks. Wrap each as finished in wax paper, and keep cool until
needed. Here may be a good place to say that the quicker a hard-boiled
egg is got out of its shell after chilling, the better and more delicate
will be its flavor.

_Fried Eggs_: Anybody, almost, can fry an egg wrong. It takes some skill
to fry one e