ture to make
him so greedy; and there would seem to be animals enough on land and
sea, without devouring the swine. If pork be important anywhere, it is
so in the old Puritan dish of baked beans; yet those who have tasted
baked beans prepared with fine rich beef instead have voted them quite
sumptuous, and possibly rich enough for people who live at restaurants.
But so long as fish, bird, and fowl remain, and men even eat turtles and
frogs,--so long as sheep do not die of wolves, nor cattle of the county
commissioners,--may not the pig be left to his wallowing in the mire?

Thus much for the poisonous _p_s. We do not place among them that
popular plant, the potato, though it has the blood of the nightshade in
its veins. But these may be made moderately poisonous by putting them
into soup. Once taste clear potato-water, and you will not aspire to
drink a strong broth from it. And even potatoes one may eat at a dozen
tables, and not find nicely served at any. With domestics generally they
figure as the article that in cooking takes care of itself,--the
convenient vegetable, that may be thrown into the kettle, and taken up
when nothing else needs to be. In the end they are either half done and
hard, or when done, being left soaking, are watery and soggy; whereas
they should be pared, kept boiling in salted water till they break, then
drained and shaken over the coals till powdery dry. They need tossing
up with as light a hand as an omelet, you see. If they are not of the
nicest variety, they should be mashed with milk, butter, and salt, and
placed in the oven to brown. This is a kind of medication which usually
makes the poorest article quite palatable, and is resorted to in the
early summer, when potatoes are become decidedly an "aged _p_." I was
once amused to hear a man complaining of a certain potato, because it
was "too dry." It is doubtful what he would do in Maine, the land of the
famous Jackson whites, which boil to a creamy powder. One must be
grateful that our Massachusetts Dovers cannot be dampened by this
original potato-taster. He probably would like juicy potatoes and mealy
oranges.

But of course none can have studied diet and its varied effects on
various persons, without seeing it to be impossible to make up two lists
of dishes, one of which shall be voted hurtful and the other harmless.
Nor does the healthfulness of food seem to consist wholly in its
simplicity, according to old Grahamite theories. There