IN hot weather a comfortable room is essential to the enjoyment of a meal. The salle À manger must be cleared of food, the soiled dishes removed, all crumbs brushed up, and the flies beaten out the moment breakfast is over, if the apartment is to be pleasant at noon. If blinds and doors are kept closed, the room may be deliciously cool and fresh by lunch-time.

With such surroundings, good digestion is much more prone to wait on appetite than in a stuffy, fly-infested room, where neither heat nor light is excluded. Among the pleasantest recollections of at least one woman are those connected with the lunches she has eaten in midsummer in a certain city dining-room, where the subdued light, the daintily arranged table, the carefully prepared and seasonable food, and the noiseless serving inclined one to feel that there were many worse fates than being obliged to spend the summer in town.

1.
Anchovy Toast. Chicken Salad.
Bread-and-Butter.
Berries and Cream.
Iced Tea.

Anchovy Toast.—Spread crustless slices of toast first with butter, then with anchovy paste. Set in the oven five minutes, and send to table.

Chicken Salad.—Cut into small neat pieces half the contents of a can of boned chicken or part of a cold boiled or roast chicken. Mix this with half as much celery, if you can get it; if not, arrange it in the midst of crisp lettuce leaves. Stir into it a French dressing of two tablespoonfuls of oil, as much vinegar, and a little pepper and salt, and pour over it a mayonnaise dressing.

Mayonnaise Dressing.—Into a bowl set in an outer vessel of cold or iced water place the yolk of an egg. Be careful that no vestige of the white gets in. Begin whipping in salad oil drop by drop with a Dover egg-beater, beating for nearly a minute after each addition. After ten minutes, add two or three drops at a time, and when the dressing once begins to thicken, the quantity can be increased even more. If too thick, add a little vinegar to thin it. A pint of oil can be used to every egg. When done, season with salt and white pepper. Just before serving, stir into it the whipped white of an egg. The bowl, egg-beater, and materials must all be very cold, and the dressing when made must be kept on ice until used.

2.
Eggs À la CrÈme.
Raw Tomatoes. Rice Crumpets.
Sliced Peaches.

Eggs À la CrÈme.—Eight eggs boiled hard, one cup white sauce, two tablespoonfuls fine crumbs, tablespoonful butter. Slice six of the eggs, and put them in a pudding-dish with the white sauce. Rub the yolks of the other two eggs through a sieve, mix them with the bread-crumbs, and sprinkle them over the top of the dish. Put bits of butter here and there, garnish the dish around the sides with points of buttered toast and the extra whites of the eggs cut in rings, and set the dish in the oven until browned on top.

Rice Crumpets.—One cup rice, two cups flour, one cup milk, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful sugar; quarter of a yeast-cake, dissolved in warm water; pinch of salt. Set to rise early in the morning. When light, fill muffin-pans; let them stand fifteen minutes, and bake.

3.
Deviled Chicken.
French Rolls. Broiled Tomatoes.
Berries.

Deviled Chicken.—Select a young and tender chicken, score it with a knife, rub it well with the sauce described in the last chapter (see "Deviled Mutton"), and broil over a clear fire.

Broiled Tomatoes.—Slice, but do not peel, fresh tomatoes. Broil them on a toaster over the fire; remove to a hot dish; put a little butter, pepper, and salt on each one, and let them stand a minute before serving.

4.
Poached Eggs, with Anchovy Toast.
Sardines.
Boston Brown-Bread. Water-cress.
Nutmeg Melons.

Poached Eggs, with Anchovy Toast.—Prepare slices of anchovy toast as already described, and lay on each slice a poached egg. Pour over all a cup of drawn butter in which has been stirred a teaspoonful of chopped parsley.

Boston Brown-Bread.—Put a loaf of Boston brown-bread into the inner vessel of a double boiler, and boiling water in the outer vessel, and steam the bread until it is hot through.

5.
Game PÂtÉ. Cold Tongue, sliced.
Bread-and-Butter. Radishes.
Hot Crackers.
Cream Cheese.

Game PÂtÉ.—Several varieties of game pÂtÉs are put up by French and American companies, and all are admirable for summer lunches or teas.

6.
Fried Pickerel. New Potatoes.
Brown-Bread.
Celery and Radish Salad.

Fried Pickerel.—These fish are very delicious when perfectly fresh. Each fish should be rolled in flour and fried quickly in hot dripping. Take them out of the pan as soon as done.

Celery and Radish Salad.—Cut the celery into inch lengths, and toss it up with a French dressing. Heap it in a bowl, and arrange half-peeled radishes around the mound. Pour over all a mayonnaise dressing prepared according to the directions already given. The combination of the cool celery and the pungent radishes will be found very pleasing.

7.
Jellied Tongue. Fried Bananas.
Asparagus Biscuit.
Peaches and Cream.

Jellied Tongue.—One cup of the liquor in which the tongue was cooked, two cups good stock or gravy of any meat except mutton, half-box of gelatine, one gill cold water, one cup boiling water, two tablespoonfuls vinegar, one glass sherry, a cold boiled tongue, sliced. Soak the gelatine in the cold water for two hours. Pour over it the boiling water, the stock or gravy, and the tongue liquor, heated. Unless the gravy is highly seasoned, it is a good plan to boil a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, a slice of onion, and a few sweet herbs in a cup of water, and then to strain this, and pour it over the gelatine instead of using the plain boiling water. Flavor the jelly with the vinegar, the sherry, pepper, and salt, if the last is needed. Strain all through a cloth. When the jelly begins to harden, pour a little into a brick-shaped mould or tin pan with straight sides, first wetting the mould with cold water. Arrange slices of tongue on this. Pour in more jelly, then place another layer of tongue, and continue thus until the supply of both is exhausted, making jelly the last layer. Set the mould on ice until the jelly is hard; turn it out and slice on the table. This sounds like a fussy dish, but it is less trouble than appears at first.

Asparagus Biscuit.—Scoop out the inside of stale biscuit, leaving side walls and the foundation of crust. Set these hollow shells in the oven until dried. Boil asparagus tender in salted water, cut off the tops, mince and season them, and stir them into a cupful of drawn butter. Fill the hot shells with the mixture, and send to table.

8.
Baked Chicken Omelet. Corn Croquettes.
Brown Bread.
Strawberry Short-Cake.
Iced Coffee.

Baked Chicken Omelet.—Into one cupful of white sauce, made as previously directed, stir a cupful of chicken, minced fine and seasoned to taste. Beat two eggs light, yolks and white separately. Add the yolks to the chicken mixture; last, stir in the whites lightly, pour into a buttered pudding dish, and bake in a quick oven.

Corn Croquettes.—To two cupfuls of green corn, chopped, add one well-beaten egg, a teaspoonful of butter, one of sugar, salt to taste, and just enough flour to hold the ingredients together. Form into croquettes with floured hands, and fry in deep fat.

9.
Pickled Lambs' Tongues. Egg Salad.
Boiled Corn-Bread.
Loppered Milk.

Egg Salad.—Slice hard-boiled eggs, arrange them upon crisp lettuce leaves, and pour over all a mayonnaise dressing.

Boiled Corn-Bread.—Two cups sour milk, one cup warm water, one tablespoonful lard, one tablespoonful molasses, one teaspoonful soda, one cup flour, two cups corn-meal. Mix the ingredients, beating well; pour into a Boston brown-bread mould with a tight top; set in a pot of water; boil two hours, and turn out.

10.
Welsh Rabbit. Cold Corned Ham.
Sliced Cucumbers.
Rolls.
Hot Oatmeal Crackers. Cream Cheese.

Welsh Rabbit.—One egg, half-cup milk, one cup grated cheese; salt, Cayenne, and made mustard to taste; squares of stale bread toasted and buttered. Heat the milk in a double boiler, melt the grated cheese in this, season, add the egg, and pour the mixture over the toast. If the rabbit seems too thin, add more cheese or a few fine bread-crumbs.