124* OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



"The lack of exercise that attends the fattening 

 process in captivity, whether in a pot with broken 

 bottom or in a pine box, makes its effects felt prin- 

 cipally in the structure of the liver, which grows 

 to an enormous size and 'becomes charged with fat, 

 as I have already told you in speaking of the duck. 

 With the method used in Alsace the liver attains 

 the weight of half a kilogram and sometimes double 

 that. Moreover, in the process of cooking, a goose 

 yields from three to five pounds of fat admirably 

 suited for use with vegetables through the rest of 

 the year. Goose livers serve the same purposes as 

 ducks' livers: they go to the making of the ragouts 

 of Nerac and Toulouse, and they form the chief in- 

 gredient in the celebrated Strasburg pates de foie 

 gras. 



1 ' We have not yet exhausted the uses of the goose. 

 Before the invention of steel pens, in general use to- 

 day, large goose quills were employed for writing. 

 Their preparation consisted in passing them through 

 hot ashes and then scraping them a little to remove 

 their greasy coating, which would prevent the ink's 

 flowing. Of very convenient size for the fingers, 

 their combined firmness and elastic flexibility made 

 them also admirably adapted for writing; but they 

 had to be recut from time to time, and the handling 

 of a penknife was not without its difficulties, its dan- 

 gers even, in inexperienced hands like yours. So 

 steel pens have almost entirely supplanted them. 



"Another product of the goose's plumage con- 

 sists in the small feathers and down used for bed- 



