192 THE MILK IN THE COCO-NUT 



steamboat. The confectioner undermines our digestion in 

 early life with coco-nut candy ; the cook tempts us later 

 on with coco-nut cake ; and Messrs. Huntley and Palmer 

 cordially invite us to complete the ruin with coco-nut 

 biscuits. We anoint our chapped hands with one of its 

 preparations after washing ; and grease the wheels of our 

 carriages with another to make them run smoothly. Finally, 

 we use the oil to burn in our reading lamps, and light our- 

 selves at last to bed with stearine candles. Altogether, an 

 amateur census of a single small English cottage results in 

 the startling discovery that it contains twenty- seven distinct 

 articles which owe their origin in one way or another to 

 the coco-nut palm. And yet we affect in our black in- 

 gratitude to despise the question of the milk in the coco- 

 nut. 



