[Illustration: Cook Personally Conducting.]

If you're anxious to eat without any repining,
Read THEODORE CHILD upon "Delicate Dining."
This sage gastronomic full soothly doth say,
That no mortal can dine more than once in the day;
Then he quotes LOUIS QUINZE, that the art of the cook
Must be learnt most from practice, and not from a book;
While you also will find in the readable proem,
Doctor KING said a dinner resembled a poem.

We shall next see a cook can have only the dimmest
Of notions of art, if he isn't a chemist.
So we learn here the names and the separate uses
Of muscular fibre, albumen and juices.
We are shown the right methods of roasting and boiling,
Of frying and stewing, decocting and broiling;
While our author in words there can be no mistaking,
Is dead against "roasting" in ovens--or baking.

Our asparagus then we are heedfully told,
[Greek: Iostephanos] should be like Athens of old:
With a violet head and a stalk very white
While this CHILD thinks that tepid it yields most delight.
On the artichoke too with affection he lingers,
And also advises you eat with your fingers,
_Petits pois à la Française_ are here, the receipt
That he gives is a good one but haply too sweet.