let it stand by the fire five minutes longer. cold. Some of it may be taken warm at mainder kept at hand for occasional use.

This is good for a once, and the re

WINE POSSET.-Boil some slices of white bread in a pint of milk; when soft take it off the fire, and grate in some nutmeg and a little sugar; pour it out, put half a pint of sweet wine into it by degrees, and serve it with toasted bread.

BALM, MINT, AND OTHER TEAS.-These are simple infusions, the strength of which can only be regulated by the taste. They are made by putting either the fresh or the dried plants into boiling water in a covered vessel, which should be placed near the fire for an hour. The young shoots both of balm and of mint are to be preferred, on account of their strong aromatic qualities. These infusions may be drunk freely in feverish and in various other complaints, in which diluents are recommended. Mint tea, made with the fresh leaves, is useful in allaying nausea and vomiting.

EEL BROTH.-Set a pound of small eels over the fire with six pints of water, some parsley, onion, and a few peppercorns; simmer till the broth is good, then strain it off, and add salt. The above quantity should be reduced by simmering to three pints.

BREAD SOUP.-Boil some pieces of bread crust in a quart of water with a small piece of butter, beat it up with a spoon, and keep it boiling till the bread and water be well mixed; then add a little salt.

SIPPETS.-On a very hot plate lay some sippets of bread, and pour some beef, mutton, or veal-gravy on them; then sprinkle a little salt over them.

MULLED WINE.-Boil a pint of wine with nutmeg, cloves, and sugar, serve it with slices of toasted bread; or, beat up the yolks of four eggs with a little cold wine, and mix them carefully with the hot wine, pour it backwards and forwards till it looks fine, heat it again over the fire till it is tolerably thick, pour it backwards and forwards, and serve with toasted bread as above.

Or, -Boil some spice in a little water till the flavor is extracted, then add a pint of port wine, with some sugar and nutmeg.

HOUSEHOLD HINTS;

OR, USEFUL MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

THE ART OF CARVING.-In carving, your knife should be light and sharp, and it should be firmly grasped, although in using it strength is not so essential as skill, particularly if the butcher has properly divided the bones of such joints as the neck, loin, and breast of veal or of mutton.

The dish should not be far from the carver; for when it is too distant, by occasioning the arms to be too much extended, it gives an awkward appearance to the person, and renders the task more difficult.

Fish requires very little carving; it should be carefully helped with a fish-slice, which not being sharp, prevents the flakes from being broken, and in salmon and cod these are large and add much to their beauty.

To carve a turkey, fix the fork firmly on one side of the thin bone that rises in the centre of the breast; the fork should be placed parallel with the bone, and as close to it as possible. Cut the meat from the breast lengthwise, in slices of about half an inch in thickness. Then turn the turkey upon the side, nearest you, and cut off the leg and wing; when the knife is passed between the limbs and the body, and pressed outward, the joint will be easily perceived. Then turn the turkey on the other side, and cut off the leg and wing. Separate the drum-sticks from the leg bones, and the pinions from the wings; it is hardly possible to mistake the joint. Cut the stuffing in thin slices, lengthwise. Take off the neck-bones, which are two triangular bones on each side of the breast; this is done by passing the knife from the back under the blade part of each neck-bone, until it reaches the end; by raising the knife the other branch will easily crack off. Separate the carcass from the back by passing the knife lengthwise from the neck downward. Turn the back upwards and lay the edge of the knife across the backbone, about midway between the legs and wings; at the same moment, place the fork within the lower part of the turkey, and lift it up; this will make the back-bone crack at the knife. The croup, or lower part of the back, being cut off, put it on the plate, with the rump from you, and split off the side-bones by forcing the knife through from the rump to the other end.

The choicest parts of a turkey are the side-bones, the breast, and the thigh-bones. The breast and wings are called light meat; the thigh-bones and side-bones dark meat. When a person declines expressing a preference, it is polite to help to both kinds.

A goose is carved nearly as a turkey, only the breast should be cut in slices narrow and nearly square, instead of broad, like that of a turkey; and before passing the knife to separate the legs and wings, the fork is to be placed in the small end of the leg-bone or pinion, and the part pressed close to the body, when the separation will be easy. Take off the merry-thought, the neck-bones, and separate the leg-bones from the legs, and the pinions from the wings. The best parts are the breast, the thigh-bones, and the fleshy parts of the wings.

A sirloin of beef should be managed thus: Place the curving bone downward upon the dish. Cut the outside lengthwise, separating each slice from the chine-bone, with the point of the knife. Some people cut through at the chine, slip the knife under, and cut the meat out in one mass, which they afterward cut in slices; but this is not the best or the most proper way. The tender loin is on the inside; it is to be cut cross

wise.

A saddle of mutton is the two loins together, and the backbone running down the middle to the tail. Slices are to be cut out parallel to the back-bone on either side.

In a leg of mutton, the knife is to be entered in the thick fleshy part, as near the shank as will give a good slice. Cut towards the large end, and always to the bone.

A fillet of veal is the thick part of the leg, and is to be cut smooth, round and close to the bone. Some prefer the outside piece. A little fat cut from the skirt is to be served to each plate.

In carving a pig, if the pig be whole, cut off the head, and split it in halves along the back-bone. Separate the shoulders and legs by passing the knife under them in a circular direction. The best parts are the triangular piece of the neck, the ribs, legs and shoulders.

HOW AND WHERE TO KEEP THINGS.-Crusts and bits of bread should be kept in an earthen pot, closely covered in a dry cool place. Keep fresh lard and suet in tin vessels. Keep salt pork fat in glazed earthen ware. Keep yeast in wood or earthen. Keep preserves and jellies in glass, or china, or stone ware. Keep salt in a dry place. Keep meal in a cool dry place. Keep ice in the cellar, wrapped in flannel. Keep vinega in wood or glas.

WASHING. In all large "washes," the linen and especially cotton stockings, should be put to soak over night; both soap and labor are thus saved. You should always provide your washers with little wooden bowls to throw their soap into, which will prevent their letting it stand in the water, wasting; make also a proper flannel "blue bag," and let it be a rule that this and the bowls shall be delivered up after the wash, that they may be set aside in readiness for another occasion.

Mend clothes before washing, except stockings; these can best be darned when clean.

Flannels should be washed in clean hot suds in which a little blueing has been mingled; do not rinse them. Woollens of all kinds should be washed in hot suds.

Soft Water is indispensable to the washerwoman; rain, or river water, is the best. If you have good water, do not use soda; it gives a yellowish tinge to the clothes. If you buy your soap, it is most economical to use hard soap for washing clothes, and soft soap for floors, &c.

To wash colored dresses, turn the inner side out, and wash them in cold water, in which a little boiled soap is well mixed; rinse them well in clean cold water, and the last time with a little salt in the water, and dry them in the shade. They should be washed and dried with as much expedition as possible.

Isinglass is a most delicate starch for muslins. When boiling common starch, sprinkle in a little fine salt; it will prevent its sticking.

Mildew Stains are very difficult to remove from linen. The most effectual way is to rub soap on the spots, then chalk, and bleach the garment in the hot sun.

Ink and Iron Mould may be taken out by wetting the spots in milk, then covering them with common salt. It should be done before the garments have been washed. Another way to take out ink is to dip it in melted tallow. For fine, delicate articles, this is the best way.

For fruit and wine stains, mix two tea-spoonfuls of water and one of spirit of salt, and let the stained part lie in this for two minutes; then rinse in cold water. Or wet the stain with

hartshorn.

To clean a carpet, shake and beat it well; lay it upon the floor, and tack it firmly; then with a clean flannel wash it over with one quart of bullock's gall, mixed with three quarts of soft cold water, and rub it off with a clean flannel or house cloth. Any particular dirty spot should be rubbed with pure gall.

DIRECTIONS FOR WASHING CALICOES.-Calico clothes, before they are put in water, should have the grease spots rubbed out,

as they cannot be seen when the whole of the garment is wet. They should never be washed in very hot soapsuds; that which is mildly warm will cleanse them quite as well, and will not extract the colors so much. Soft soap should never be used for calicoes, excepting for the various shades of yellow, which look the best washed with soft soap, and not rinsed in fair water. Other colors should be rinsed in fair water, and dried in the shade. When calicoes incline to fade, the colors can be set by washing them in lukewarm water, with beef's gall, in the proportion of a tea-cup full to four or five gallons of water. Rinse them in fair water-no soap is necessary, without the clothes are very dirty. If so, wash them in lukewarm suds, after they have been first rubbed out in beef's gall water. The beef's gall can be kept several months, by squeezing it out of the skin in which it is enclosed, adding salt to it, and bottled and corked tight. The water that potatoes has been boiled in is an excellent thing to wash black calicoes in. When there are many black garments to wash in a family, it is a good plan to save, during the week, all the water in which potatoes are boiled. The following method is said to set the colors of calicoes so that they will not fade by subsequent washing: Infuse three gills of salt in four quarts of boiling water; put in the calicoes, (which should be perfectly clean; if not so the dirt will be set.) Let the calicoes remain in till the water is cold. I have never seen this tried; but I think it not improbable that may be an excellent way to set the colors, as rinsing calicoes in cold salt and water serves to set the colors, particularly of black, blue, and green colors. A little vinegar in the rinsing water of pink, red and green calicoes, is good to brighten the colors, and keep them from mixing. All kinds of calicoes but black, look better for starching, but black calicoes will not look clear if starched. On this account potatoe-water is an excellent thing to wash them in, if boiled down to a thick consistence, as it stiffens them without showing.

it

DIRECTIONS FOR WASHING WHITE COTTON CLOTHES.-Table cloths, or any white clothes that have coffee or fruit stains on them, before being put into soap-suds, should have boiling water turned on them, and remain in it till the water is coldthe spots should be then rubbed out in it. If they are put into soap-suds with the stains in, they will be set by it, so that no subsequent washing will remove them. Table cloths will be less likely to get stained up, if they are always rinsed in thin starch water, as it tends to keep coffee and fruit from sinking into the texture of the cloth. White clothes that are very dirty, will come clean easily if put into strong, cool suds, and hung on the fire the night previous to the day in which they are to be washed. If they get to boiling, it will not do them any harm,