_Question_.--Now, Sir, how would you do _Eggs à la Bonne Femme?_
Perhaps this query might be preceded by general information as to who the particular "_bonne femme_" (for she must have been a very particular _bonne femme_) was to whom so many dishes are dedicated. [In the Scotch McCookery books, _Broth o' the gude-wife_ would be a national name.]
_Answer_.--To make _Eggs à la Bonne Femme_, Mrs. DE SALIS says, "Get as many eggs as there are guests (they should all be the same size)--" Now this is a difficulty. It is not an easy matter to assemble round your table a party of guests "all the same size:" still more difficult is it to get together a lot of eggs all the same size as the guests. But, when this has been got over, read the remainder at p. 55, and then, as _Squeers's_ pupils used to have to do, go and reduce the teaching to practice.
The receipt for _Potatoes à la Lyonnaise_ begins with, "Mince an onion, and fry it in hot butter"--O rare! Why do more? Who wants potatoes after this? And, when you've had quite enough of it, smoke a pipe, drink a glass of whiskey-and-water, go to an evening party, and then, if you won't be one of the most remarkable advertisements for _cette bonne femme_ Madame DE SALIS, why I don't live in Baronion Halls, and my name's no longer
P.S.--So many persons have sent in touching requests to the Baron only to notice their books with one little word, that his library table groans under their weight. To about a hundred of them that one little word might be "Bosh!"--but even then they'd be pleased.
[The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER has announced that the Treasury have decided to enable the small investor in Consols, upon a written request to the Bank of England, to have his dividends re-invested as they arise, and thus automatically accumulated without further trouble on his part.--_Times_.]
Oh, it was the old Lady of Threadneedle Street, And she held up her Stocking (ne'er used for her feet), And she ups, and says she, "I've an excellent notion; Leastways, 'tis one borrowed from COHEN by GOSCHEN; Which nobody can deny!
"The cash that you put in my Stocking, my dears, Will grow by degrees, if you leave it for years. By your dividends? Ah! you draw _them_, girls and boys, And spend 'em, the _Times_ says, in sweets and in toys; Which nobody can deny!