ADVICE FOR LACKLAND. 67 



made in favor of a good rasher of bacon at breakfast, 

 with a fresh egg (from the cock as a city friend 

 once suggested in a flow of cheery, rural exuberance) ; 

 nor do I think anything can be righteously said 

 against a snug bit of clear pork in a dish of boiled 

 corned brisket of beef; nay, I would still further 

 extend the exception to a crisp fry of delicate slices 

 as an accompaniment of grilled trout, where the latter 

 fall below a half-pound in weight ; nor do I think 

 great harm of a thin blanket of the same condiment 

 to enwrap a roasted quail, or slivers of it to enlard 

 delicately a fricandeau of veal. But, as for pork 

 chops, or pork roast, or pork boiled, to be eaten as 

 the chief piece nutritive of a dinner it is an abomi- 

 nation ! Our friends the Jews have not only Scrip- 

 tural reason in the thing, but reasons physiological. 



" And now, my dear fellow, having despatched 

 your pig (who should be bought for five or six dollars 

 at seven weeks old, and should be sold at twenty 

 from the growth of your garden and a splicing bag 

 of ship stuff), you will have, if you have used proper 

 vigilance, some three to four loads of choice compost 

 to contribute to the vegetable growth of the next 

 season. There is a notion that manure from such a 

 source provokes the growth of club-foot in cabbages 

 and cauliflowers ; but after repeated trials with a 

 view to fix this averment, I am unable to do so. 



