Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management

such as pears or pine-apple. The guest lays this silver upon the table, and places the bowl, with the doily under it, within easy reach. If there is a fruit-napkin, it is laid ready for use ; and, unless a fresh white napkin is served, the dinner-napkin remains upon the knees until the end of the dinner : when the white dessert-napkin is laid, the dinner-napkin is to be taken away before the service of the dessert. Other details in regard to the napkin are given where the table-linen is discussed. When the frozen carafes or water-bottles are to be prepared at home, the following method will be found easy and satisfactory. Unless small carafes for individual use are desired, the ordinary glass ones will answer : the use of cut or pressed glass bottles is attended with the danger of breaking during the freezing. Smooth carafes are best, holding about a quart : they are filled with fresh water to the bottom of the neck, and set in a wooden tub containing enough freezingmixture to reach two-thirds up the sides. The freezing-mixture is composed of three parts of pounded ice to one of salt. The carafes are covered first with a clean cloth, and then with a heavy blanket, and allowed to remain undisturbed until the water is frozen. If they are left over night, as they sometimes are in summer, suiificient drainage must be insured to prevent the entrance of the melted freezingmixture to the carafes. FLOWERS AT TABLE. FLOWERS will probably always hold favor as table decorations, because of their beauty and freshness ; but the use of large and elaborate flower-stands, or high ornamental figures of sweetmeats and confectionery, epergnes, or plate, should be deprecated. They obstruct the intercourse of the guests, which to be enjoyable must be unconstrained. In summer, a very effective centre-piece for the table may be formed by wreathing a block of ice with smilax, ivy, or ferns ; of course, care must be taken to insure perfect drainage, or a sufficiently large receptacle to hold the water must be placed under the ice, otherwise the tablecloth will be soiled. The size and shape of the table will decide the degree of ornamentation admissible. A round table might be arranged somewhat after the following fashion, using only flowers for decoration. In the service a la Russe, the small dessert-dishes and the relishes would be interspersed. A fine cloth being laid, the centre of the table would be filled with either a block of ice wreathed in vines or leaves, or a stand of dwarf foliageplants, or a circular bed of flowers of some pronounced color, usually of one variety ; next, in the outer circle, contrasting flowers, or small dessert-dishes and relishes harmoniously arranged so far as color and form are concerned ; and at the edge of the table, the service of covers. In this FLOWERS, BILLS OF FARE, AND WINES. I IT plan no calculation is made for placing on the table the different dishes composing the dinner; when the service involves this, space should be left for the dishes, large enough to allow a margin of the cloth to show between the centre decoration and the dishes served.