nly just cover
it with the boiling water; when this is cool, cold water may be added in
the proportion required,--the toast-and-water strained; it will then be
ready for use, and is more expeditiously prepared than by the above
method.

TOAST SANDWICHES.

1877. INGREDIENTS.--Thin cold toast, thin slices of bread-and-butter,
pepper and salt to taste.

_Mode_.--Place a very thin piece of cold toast between 2 slices of thin
bread-and-butter in the form of a sandwich, adding a seasoning of pepper
and salt. This sandwich may be varied by adding a little pulled meat, or
very fine slices of cold meat, to the toast, and in any of these forms
will be found very tempting to the appetite of an invalid.

1878. Besides the recipes contained in this chapter, there are, in the
previous chapters on cookery, many others suitable for invalids, which
it would be useless to repeat here. Recipes for fish simply dressed,
light soups, plain roast meat, well-dressed vegetables, poultry, simple
puddings, jelly, stewed fruits, &c. &c., all of which dishes may be
partaken of by invalids and convalescents, will be found in preceding
chapters.

DINNERS AND DINING.

CHAPTER XL.

1879. Man, it has been said, is a dining animal. Creatures of the
inferior races eat and drink; man only dines. It has also been said that
he is a cooking animal; but some races eat food without cooking it. A
Croat captain said to M. Brillat Savarin, "When, in campaign, we feel
hungry, we knock over the first animal we find, cut off a steak, powder
it with salt, put it under the saddle, gallop over it for half a mile,
and then eat it." Huntsmen in Dauphiny, when out shooting, have been
known to kill a bird, pluck it, salt and pepper it, and cook it by
carrying it some time in their caps. It is equally true that some races
of men do not dine any more than the tiger or the vulture. It is not a
_dinner_ at which sits the aboriginal Australian, who gnaws his bone
half bare and then flings it behind to his squaw. And the native of
Terra-del-Fuego does not dine when he gets his morsel of red clay.
Dining is the privilege of civilization. The rank which a people occupy
in the grand scale may be measured by their way of taking their meals,
as well as by their way of treating their women. The nation which knows
how to dine has learnt the leading lesson of progress. It implies both
the will and the skill to reduce to order, and surround with idealisms
and grace