it with four table-spoonfuls of flour.
Pour in a ladleful of the soup, mix it with the rest by degrees, and
boil it up till it is smooth. This may be rendered more savoury by
adding a little ketchup. The soup should be strained through a tammis.

THICKENING. Clarified butter is best for this purpose, or put some fresh
butter into a stewpan over a slow clear fire. When it is melted, add
fine flour sufficient to make it the thickness of paste. Stir it well
together with a wooden spoon for fifteen or twenty minutes, till it is
quite smooth, and the colour of a guinea. This must be done very
gradually and patiently, or it will be spoiled. Pour it into an earthen
pan, and it will keep good a fortnight in summer, and longer in winter.
Particular attention must be paid in making it; if it gets any burnt
smell or taste, it will spoil every thing it is put into. When cold, it
should be thick enough to cut out with a knife, like a solid paste. This
is a very essential article in the kitchen, and the basis of consistency
in most made dishes, soups, sauces, and ragouts. In making this
thickening, the less butter and the more flour is used the better. They
must be thoroughly worked together, and the broth or soup added by
degrees. Unless well incorporated, the sauce will taste floury, and have
a greasy disagreeable appearance. To prevent this, it must be finished
and cleansed, after it is thickened, by adding a little broth or warm
water, and setting it by the side of the fire to raise any fat that is
not thoroughly incorporated with the gravy, that it may be carefully
removed as it comes to the top. Some cooks merely thicken their soups
and sauces with flour, or the farina of potatoe; and others use the fat
skimmings off the top of broth, as a substitute for butter.

THORNS AND SPLINTERS. To run prickles or thorns, such as those of roses,
thistles, and chesnuts, or little splinters of wood or bone, into the
hands, feet, or legs, is a very common accident, and provided any such
substance be immediately extracted, it is seldom attended with any bad
consequences. But the more certain prevention is a compress of linen
dipped in warm water, and applied to the part, or to bathe it a little
while in warm water. If the thorn or splinter cannot be extracted
directly, or if any part of it be left in, it causes an inflammation,
and nothing but timely precaution will prevent its coming to an abscess.
A plaster of shoemaker's wax spread up