of boiling. Generally speaking, all the boxes
that are not convex on the tvo sides, when taken
out of the heating process, are bad, but the
reverse is the case if the swelling in convexity
continues after the boxes have become cold.

"The heads and débris are much valued, and
sold for agricultural purposes. There are about
forty establishments which prepare the sardines
with oil in tin boxes, and the quantity prepared
is about ten million boxes annually. We have
been thus particular as to the mode of preparation,
because the advantage of preparing the
boxes for home consumption and exportation
must be obvious. Large quantities are prepared
for Australia and California, and in 1853 the
quantity exported from France amounted to
about four million pounds weight."

A notable improvement has recently been
made even upon this delicate mode of preparing
sprats. An ingenious frenchman has patented
his process of preparing boneless sardines. A
box of them which I have eaten was the finest I
have ever tasted. The mode of extracting the
bones is kept a secret, although it will scarcely
prove an impenetrable mystery to persons who
understand now to cook fish. But the extraction
of the bones must make the curing much
slower and more laborious, and thus raise the
price of the boneless sardines. Coarsely
prepared sardines, and young herrings falsely called
sardines, are now sold in quantities outrivalling
the genuine article. On the counters of most of
the grocers these impositions are as common as
the genuine fish. But the inferiority of the
flavour, and a little examination, will enable any
one who bears in mind the characteristics which
I have mentioned distinguishing the sprat from
the young of other fish of the herring group, to
detect the counterfeit merchandise. Purchasers
must protect themselves by their knowledge for
a long time to come, from spurious goods; the
good time not having come yet when a parliament
shall be elected which will perceive and
enact that it is more criminal, because more
pernicious to society, to pass off bad food than to
pass off bad money.

Herrings, it is said by some fishermen, spawn
four times a year, and, at any rate, as herring fry
is refused by the salesmen, and comparatively
worthless, the temptation of superior profit
explains the prevalence of the counterfeit. Yet
the Scotch, who are vying with the Dutch in
the herring trade, might advantageously vie
with the French in the sprat trade. The sprat
or garvie has the habit of coming into the
shallows of the Frith of Forth, between North and
South Queensferry, on the western side of Inch-
garvie. The best fishing-ground is to the west-
ward, extending sometimes as far up as Kincardine
and Alboa. The garvie likes brackish
water from November to the end of February.
The young herrings generally keep to the east
of the sprats. The mesh of the sprat-net is a
half inch, the mesh of the herring-net an inch
one. A sprat-boat costs about twenty pounds,
and a sprat-net from six to ten. The owner of
the boat and net, who is of course the skipper,
receives half the fish taken as his share; the
three other men, the remaining moiety. Roughly
estimated, every man makes his two pounds a
week during the fourteen weeks of the fishery,
every boat makes about a hundred pounds, and
the whole value of the fishery during one season
may be about seven or eight thousand pounds.
But it is not merely at Queensferry, there are
many other places on the coasts of the British
islands where the sprat fishery might be made
far more gainful, if this delicious fish, in
addition to being smoked and dried for the poor,
were prepared in oil for the rich. As for the
oil and the tin, I surely shall not be told that
they are lions iii the way.

PATTY RESUMES HER VOCATION.

CHAPTER I.

"ROBERT, look at this."

"I look at it, Patty."

"But you are to read it."

"Ah! that is quite a different matter. Is it
addressed to you or to me?"

"To neither; the letter belongs to Pet,* and
she wishes us to read it, and give her our
opinion."
* See page 199 of the present volume.

"Hum, as Erasmus says. I am at a loss to
conceive how a letter addressed to Pet can in
any way require my supervision. Oh! I see it
is in the French language, written in a most
beautiful Italian hand, and smelting of Persian
jasmine. My opinion of the contents of the
letter is only required to read it aloud to you, I
suppose, Patty?"

Now there may seem nothing wicked in this
question of Robert's; but you should have seen
his eyes: they were brimful of naughtiness.
I do not deny that I cannot speak French at
all properly, but I will translate against any one
—if—if I may use the dictionary.

"No," answered I, with dignity. "No,
thank you, Robert. I am quite au fait at the
contents." It is astonishing how soon one
picks up a French phrase or two. I had been
poring over the letter half the morning, and was
for putting in a bit of French with every
sentence afterwards. I had even said to Caroline,
our parlour-maid, "Prenez garde of the new
lamp."

"Please, 'um?" says she. And no wonder.

Robert was an admirable French scholar. Not
even Erasmus could speak it or understand it
better. While Robert is reading the letter, I
may as well say that not only is Erasmus
married to Maggie, and is wonderfully happy,
but they have got a baby. She is just what
Erasmus said, though f have forgotten of
what order of mankind or womankind she
came from, according to his ideas. She makes
the best wife and the most wonderful mother.
To see her wash her baby—which she always
does herself—as Erasmus says, in all his
wanderings and researches, his mummy-hunting