An American breakfast is as variegated (and I fear I must add, as indigestible) as a Scotch one; and included in the bill of fare are as many, or more, varieties of bread and cake as are to be found in the land o' shortbread. The writer has, in New York, started the morning meal with oysters, run the gamut of fish, flesh, and fowl, and wound up with buckwheat cakes, which are brought on in relays, buttered and smoking hot, and can be eaten with or without golden syrup. But, as business begins early in New York and other large cities, scant attention is paid to the first meal by the merchant and the speculator, who are wont to "gallop" through breakfast and luncheon, and to put in their "best work" at dinner. _A Mediterranean Breakfast_ is not lacking in poetry; and the jaded denizen of Malta can enjoy red mullet (the "woodcock of the sea") freshly taken from the tideless ocean, and strawberries in perfection, at his first meal, whilst seated, maybe, next to some dreamy-eyed _houri_, who coos soft nothings into his ear, at intervals. The wines of Italy go best with this sort of repast, which is generally eaten with "spoons." In fair France, breakfast, or the _déjeûner à la fourchette_, is not served until noon, or thereabouts. Coffee or chocolate, with fancy bread and butter, is on hand as soon as you wake; and I have heard that for the roisterer and the _p'tit crevé_ there be such liquors as _cognac_, _curaçoa_, and _chartreuse verte_ provided at the first meal, so that nerves can be strung together and headaches alleviated before the "associated" breakfast at midday. In the country, at the _château_ of _Monsieur et Madame_, the groom-of-the-chambers, or _maître d'hôtel_, as he is designated, knocks at your bedroom door at about 8.30. "Who's there?" "Good-morning, _M'sieu_. Will _M'sieu_ partake of the _chocolat_, or of the _café-au-lait_, or of the tea?" Upon ordinary occasions, _M'sieu_ will partake of the _chocolat_--if he be of French extraction; whilst the English visitor will partake of the _café-au-lait_--tea-making in France being still in its infancy. And if _M'sieu_ has gazed too long on the wine of the country, overnight, he will occasionally--reprobate that he is--partake instead of the _vieux cognac_, diluted from the syphon. And _M'sieu_ never sees his host or hostess till the "assembly" sounds for the midday meal.