Cooking and castle-building

think necessary. Then, the week following, you niay repeat or duplicate my week of cooking." "I like that proposition," said Alice : and Emeline added, "I hope you'll make a judicious selection, Kate, if we are to repeat the bill of fare, — good, bad, or indifferent." The next day I began on the preparatory week, and on the evening of the seventh day thereafter, I abdicated in favor of Alice, who brought her note-book, and, while finding the place, murmured, "For breakfast one week ago to-morrow morning, we had — ^oh, here it is — oatmeal mush, picked-up codfish cooked with cream, baked potatoes, French twist reheated, coffee. Mem. — At seven o'clock, when I entered the kitchen. Cousin Kate stood by the long table, knife in hand, bending over a codfish. She stripped off large pieces of the fish, then cut them across the grain, into pieces an inch long. As these were two or three inches wide, she picked them into small bits, throwing out the bones, and letting the fish fall into a pan of cold water. In a few minutes she had thus prepared enough for breakfast. Stirring it about in the water, she left it to freshen, while she prepared the oatmeal mush. Into a tin-lined stew-pan she put two pints of water and half a teaspoonful of salt. When the water boiled, she sprinkled in, slowly, half a pint of oatmeal, stirring it with the mush-stick. The water was boiling quite rapidly. In two minutes the meal was all in, but she continued to stir, letting it boil for two or three minutes longer, when it appeared about the consistency of thick gruel or thin batter. Then she placed the stewpan back on the range, where the heat was only enough to keep it simmering. Removing the stick and covering closely, she left it undisturbed till breakflist. Next, she took six potatoes of medium size, and, washing them very clean, placed them in a pan ready for the oven. Then she ground the coffee and put it to steep, not boil. She allowed a tablespoonful of coffee for each cup ; and, placing it in the pot, added a cup of cold water, and set it back on the range to steep. If it chanced to boil, she added more cold water. Just before serving breakfast, she added as much boiling water as was needed, and allowed it to boil for a minute ; then she lifted the pot to the kitchen table, and with a spoon removed the grounds which adhered to the inside of the pot, near the top. Rinsing these off, she poured out part of a cup, which she put inmiediately back, added a spoonful of cold water, and sent the coffee to the breakfast-table. When mamma poured it, three minutes later, it was clear as amber. Cousin Kate selected a bowl-shaped iron kettle holding about two quarts, and not a shallow pan or spider, in which to cook the codfish. She stirred the fish