es of the season,
flavoured with herbs; and the addition of half a dozen
hard-boiled eggs. The whole of the flesh is boned.--EDITOR.]

Our friend said much more, notably with regard to rat and horseflesh;
and then he wound up: "But what is the good? Those who might benefit by
my advice are not here, and, if they were, they would probably scorn it;
I mean the very poor. The only item of animal food which cannot be
adequately replaced by something else yielding as much or nearly as much
nourishment is milk. But, unless an adult be in delicate health or
suffering from ailments to the alleviation and cure of which milk is
absolutely necessary, he may very well go without it for six months. Not
so children. I am only showing you that the poor, with their slender
resources--and Heaven knows they are slender enough--might do better
than they are doing, for cats and rats must still be very plentiful,
only they won't touch them."

The reference to the very poor and their slender resources recurred more
than once that evening, but I knew that the authorities were trying to
do all they could in the way of relieving general and individual
distress, and that they were admirably seconded by private charity,
which not only placed comparatively large sums at their disposal, but
bestirred itself by means of specially appointed committees and
visitors. The rations of meat (horsemeat) and bread distributed were not
sufficient. The first had already fallen to forty-five grammes per day
per head, the second to three hundred and fifty grammes;[87] they were
to fall much lower. Tickets were also distributed for set meals, with
and without meat. There was, furthermore, a distribution of fuel, albeit
that there was really no more fuel to distribute. All the wooden seats
in the public thoroughfares, the scaffoldings before the half-finished
buildings had disappeared. At one of my friend's apartments there was
none but the outer door left, all the others had been replaced by
curtains. They had been chopped up to keep his family warm. The fear of
the terrible landlord may have prevented the poor from imitating this
proceeding. At any rate, I noticed no absent doors in my visits to any
of them. A further supply of meat or bread, even if they had the money,
was out of the question for them; because, though some shops remained
open and their owners were compelled to sell according to the tariff set
forth by the municipality, they h