a frying pan
with a little of the fat from the meat. Put the meat, three cups of
boiling water, one bay leaf, one small onion, salt and pepper, two small
carrots, two sprigs parsley, one-half teaspoon celery seed, a little
flour, one-half teaspoon Worcestershire sauce into a small cooker pail
and let it simmer thirty minutes; set in a large pail of boiling water
and put into a cooker for nine hours or more. Reheat it to boiling
point; strain; thicken the liquor for gravy.

RICE PUDDING.

Heat one quart of milk, one teaspoonful of butter, one-third cup of
rice, one-eighth teaspoon of grated nutmeg, one-eighth teaspoon of salt
and one-half cup of sugar in a pudding pan over a cooker pail of water.
When water boils remove pan and bring pudding also to a boil. When
boiling, replace pudding in large pan of boiling water, cover and put
into cooker for three or four hours. One-half cup of small unbroken
seeded raisins may be added to this recipe, and the pudding may be
browned in oven before serving, if desired.

STEWED CHICKEN.

Clean and cut up a chicken. Put it, with the giblets, in enough boiling
salted water to cover it--one teaspoonful of salt to each quart of
water. Let it boil for ten minutes and put it into a cooker for ten
hours or more. If not quite tender, bring it again to a boil and cook it
for six or eight hours, depending on its toughness. Skim off as much
fat from the liquor as possible, pour off some of the liquor to use as
soup or stock, and thicken the remainder with flour for gravy. A beaten
egg or two stirred into the gravy just before serving improves it. Add
pepper and salt to taste, and serve chicken on hot platter with gravy
poured around it.

SETTING THE TABLE.

A most important thing necessary to the enjoyment of life, and an actual
aid to digestion and the preservation of health, is that each person
should make up his or her mind to forget all but pleasant thoughts and
to put an absolute bar against the discussion of disagreeable subjects
while at the table. Then only can they appreciate the fact that the meal
has been carefully prepared and the table daintily set.

To cook an excellent meal and then serve it well makes the meal perfect.
First of all the table linen should be immaculate. The more inexpensive
linens are as attractive as the handsomest damasks when absolutely
spotless and snowy white. For the lighter meals, breakfast and luncheon,
a center piece and doilies may be used