SUPPER. 167 



leaves, and a dozen oysters being stuffed in each one, answered in 

 the place of dressing. 



Lou Jackson prepared the corn-bread cake called pone as only 

 a South-woman can, and it was laid on a flat stone that had been 

 carefully selected, and had served for this purpose for several 

 previous dinners, and it would have been a pleasant amusement to 

 see the white dough gradually becoming mahogany brown before 

 the fire, had we not each been busy with the more delicate duties 

 of the kitchen. 



I made the boys cut some long wooden skewers, and Kose 

 having cut a deer's liver in small square pieces, an inch in diameter, 

 we impaled a half dozen of these little cubes on each skewer, and 

 stuck them up before the fire at a safe distance from the coals. A 

 piece of bear's fat of the same size as the piece of liver was stuck 

 on the top of each skewer, so that, as the heat of the fire gradually 

 melted it, the liver was basted by the dropping fat, without any 

 further attention being needed. Next a redfish, with its scales 

 left on, but carefully drawn, and wiped dry, was rolled in green 

 leaves, and buried deep in the hot ashes. 



Poke, by this time, had completed his ship-biscuit powder, and 

 been to the beach with Pompey Duffield Sah, from whence he re- 

 turned with two large bivalve shells, resembling gigantic clam- 

 shells, which had been left by the waves on the beach, which he 

 carefully washed, and greased with bear's fat, and then sprinkled 

 with his ship-biscuit powder. 



" That a poultice you are going to have there, Doctor ? " said 

 Jackson. 



"No — gruel," I suggested. Poke maintained a scornful 

 silence, continuing his labour and making another trip to the 

 beach with Pompey, from which they came with the tin pan full 

 of oysters, which he proceeded to divide among his four half shells. 

 When the shells were full, he sifted the balance of his ship-biscuit 

 over them, and placed them in front of the fire. 



" Scolloped oysters, sir, by the moustache of Soyer ! you 're a 

 genius," said Jackson. 



Lou Jackson made the coffee by boiling the water in the tin 

 coffee-pot, and then tying up a sufficient quantity of ground coffee 



