it in a plate by the
side, not in the tin. If you baste the meat well, it will not shrink or
become dry and hard, it will be juicy and savoury, and it will be a good
rich brown colour."

"How quickly the fat melts!" said Mary. "There is plenty of dripping in
the pan now."

"We will pour a little of the dripping away shortly, for we want to have
it a good colour," said Mrs. Herbert. "If we let it remain too long
before the fire it will be burnt and discoloured."

Very patiently and for a long time the little girls basted the roasting
joint, and at last they were rewarded by seeing it take a rich brown
colour.

"In another quarter of an hour the beef will be roasted enough, ma'am,"
at length said Mary, looking at the clock.

"It smells as if it would taste all right, does it not?" said Margaret.

"Now we must prepare for the gravy. Cook has put the dish for the meat
and the plates where they will get hot, for little girls cannot see
after everything. In this small saucepan is a little stock made by
stewing two or three bones and scraps (with no fat whatever), a sprig of
parsley, a few rings of onion, which have been fried till brown, an inch
of celery, and five or six peppercorns in water. I do not know whether
you noticed that this stock has been stewing by the side of the fire
ever since we came into the kitchen; I have skimmed it every now and
then, and covered it closely again."

"I noticed it," said Margaret. "I thought it would turn out to be for
something which we wanted."

"It is for gravy. You see it is a rich deep brown colour, gained from
the browned onion. We must strain this gravy, put a little salt with it,
let it boil, then unhook the joint, pour a couple of table-spoonfuls of
this gravy into the dish, put the rest into a gravy tureen, and serve at
once. There will be plenty of gravy altogether, if we use that which is
in the tureen and the dish as well. Besides, our joint has been well
basted, and is not dry, so gravy will run from the meat into the dish."

"Can't we make gravy from the dripping-tin?"

"We should have had to do so if there had been no stock," said Mrs.
Herbert. "In that case we should pour out the fat from the tin very
gently and carefully till we come to the brown sediment at the bottom.
We should mix with the sediment a breakfast-cupful of boiling water, and
scrape, with the spoon, any little brown dried specks of gravy there
might be. When we had obtained as much gravy as po