ourselves with the thought that a king approved of it, and we would
show a plebeian taste if we did not also appreciate it. However, some
wry faces were made over the unlucky soup at the table, and the King of
Sweden's taste was the subject of much merriment.

I was somewhat sceptical at first that Lina had ever been in the royal
household at Stockholm, notwithstanding that she did cook so admirably;
but she managed yesterday evening to tell me, in her broken English,
about her residence in the palace.

It seems that inexperienced cooks can, by paying a certain sum, be
admitted into the royal kitchen to learn from the chief cook. After
they have perfected themselves in their profession, they receive wages,
and upon leaving, are presented with a diploma. Why could not a
somewhat similar institution--omitting the sovereign--become
practicable in our own country? Both housekeepers and newspapers groan
over the frightful cooking of our Bridgets; Professor Blot lectures
upon the kitchen scientifically and artistically considered, and our
fashionable ladies go to his classes to play at cooking; but the
novelty soon wears off, and home matters continue as badly as ever.

I do not know if the President would consent to imitate the Swedish
sovereign, by throwing open the kitchen of the White House in the same
liberal fashion, but surely he ought to be willing to make some
sacrifices for the common good--perhaps even to submit occasionally to
a dinner spoilt by the experiments of young apprentices to the culinary
art. Three months' training ought to suffice to make a very good cook,
and with a diploma from the White House, situations would be plentiful,
wages higher than ever, and employers would have the satisfaction of
knowing that their money was not thrown away.