of the cakes, and if it rises out of shape, the oven is too hot.
The cakes must not be handled in making, but a spoon or a knife must be
used.

RATIFIA CREAM. Boil three or four laurel, peach, or nectarine leaves, in
a full pint of cream, and strain it. When cold, add the yolks of three
eggs beaten and strained, sugar, and a large spoonful of brandy stirred
quick into it. Scald and stir it all the time, till it thickens. Or mix
half a quarter of a pint of ratifia, the same quantity of mountain wine,
the juice of two or three lemons, a pint of rich cream, and agreeably
sweetened with sugar. Beat it with a whisk, and put it into glasses. The
cream will keep eight or ten days.--Another. Blanch a quarter of an
ounce of bitter almonds, and beat them with a tea-spoonful of water in a
marble mortar. Rub with the paste two ounces of loaf sugar, simmer it
ten minutes with a tea-cupful of cream, and then strain and ice it.

RATIFIA DROPS. Blanch and beat in a mortar four ounces of bitter
almonds, and two ounces of sweet almonds, with a small part of a pound
of fine sugar sifted. Add the remainder of the sugar, and the whites of
two eggs, and make the whole into a paste. Divide the mass into little
balls the size of a nutmeg, put them on wafer paper, and bake them
gently on tin plates.

RATS. The first step taken by rat-catchers, in order to clear a house,
&c. of those vermin, is to allure them all together, to one proper
place, before they attempt to destroy them; for there is such an
instinctive caution in these animals, accompanied with a surprising
sagacity in discovering any cause of danger, that if any of them be
hurt, or pursued, in an unusual manner, the rest take the alarm, and
become so shy and wary, that they elude all the devices and stratagems
of their pursuers for some time after. The place where the rats are to
be assembled, should be some closet, or small room, into which all the
openings, but one or two, may be secured; and this place should be, as
near as may be, in the middle of the house, or buildings. It is the
practice, therefore, to attempt to bring them all together in some such
place before any attempt be made to take them; and even then to avoid
any violence, hurt, or fright to them, before the whole be in the power
of the operator. In respect to the means used to allure them to one
place, they are various; one of those most easily and efficaciously
practised is the trailing some piece of their mo