a boy named Arthur. Two of the former die successively of
consumption, and at the funeral of the second a friend of the family
comes to offer his compliments of condolence, and, patting little
Arthur's head, tells the poor lad the house must seem lonely to him
now. "Yes," briskly replies Arthur, whom his father has brought up
to accurate ideas, "here we children are reduced _fifty per cent_."
Worthy to take charge of these children would have been the prudent
bonne of whom _Charivari_ speaks. The morning after engaging herself
to Madame R. she hastened to that lady with her finger wrapped in a
handkerchief, and in an agitated voice asked if the _converts_ were
real silver. "Why so, Nannette?" "Because, I just pricked my finger
with a fork, and I know that if it is plated copper I ought to take
the precaution of having the place bled." "Don't be alarmed," replies
the lady, smiling despite herself at the young girl's innocence, "my
plate is all solid." "Ah," says the bonne with a sigh of relief, "I
am so glad!" The day after, the simple young lady disappeared with all
the silver. It is not every bonne that would take such precautions.

* * * * *

Paris has always been famous among modern cities for its genius and
industry in adding variety to its cuisine, either by the audacious
invention of new dishes or the felicitous combination of old
ones--either by discovering new sources of food or new methods of
preparing it. It was a curious incident in the late history of
the city that what had been a fashionable whim became a hard
necessity--that after Saint-Hilaire and the hippophagists had
struggled to introduce horseflesh as regular provender, the siege of
Paris made horseflesh a prized rarity. But the zest resulting from
the enforced diet of dogs, cats, rats and monkeys in bombardment days
appears to have been so great that we now hear of an enterprise worthy
to have a Brillat-Savarin to celebrate it--namely, the formation of
a society under the presidency of the naturalist Lespars, designed to
bring into vogue as eatable a great class of living creatures whose
presence now inspires ordinary persons only with disgust. A naturalist
who devotes himself to eating such creatures with a motive so
philanthropic deserves our praise, though we may not be able to
personally imitate his heroic example. Among the choice dishes
mentioned by one paper as selected to figure at the first public
banquet of