before they are sent to the table. Salt should be served with the
nuts.

Pass oranges, apples, pears, peaches, and bananas in the fruit-dish, to
allow each person the opportunity of choice.

_Watermelon_. Before serving, cut a slice from each end. Make incisions
through the middle in the form of the letter V, separate the parts, and
place each in an upright position. Cut through the divisions, and serve
one section to each person.

Cantaloupes, if small, are sometimes served cut in halves. If large,
divide from end to end in nature's lines of depression.

THE THICKNESS OF SLICES.

By "very thin slices of meat" we mean slices less than an eighth of an
inch thick.

"Thin slices" are from one eighth of an inch to three sixteenths of an
inch in thickness.

Slices of "medium thickness" are one quarter of an inch.

Bread for dinner should be cut in slices one inch and a half thick, and
each slice should be divided across into three or four long pieces,
according to the width of the slice.

For tea, cut slices three eighths of an inch thick, and for toast, one
quarter of an inch.

Thick loaves of cake should be cut in slices from three fourths of an
inch to an inch thick, and divided once. Cut loaves of medium thickness
in pieces as broad as the cake is thick, and divide them once. Thin
sheets of cake should be cut in rectangular pieces twice as broad as the
cake is thick. Then divide once, or even twice, if the sheet be very
wide. Layer cakes baked in round pans are usually divided into
triangular pieces; but they are less suggestive of baker's Washington
pie, which is so offensively common, if the edges be trimmed in such a
way as to leave a square. Then cut this square into smaller squares or
rectangles.

UTENSILS FOR CARVING AND SERVING.

In any first-class cutlery store you will find knives for each special
kind of carving. If your purse will permit the indulgence, it will be
convenient to have a breakfast-carver, a slicer, a jointer, a
game-carver, and a pair of game-scissors. But if you can afford to have
only one, you will find a medium-sized meat-carver the knife best
adapted to all varieties of carving. The blade should be about nine
inches long and one inch and a quarter wide, slightly curved, and
tapering to a point.

The fork should have two slender curving tines about three eighths of an
inch apart and two and a half inches long, and should have a guard.

A breakfast or steak carver is of