TO BLANCH ALMONDS.--Shell fresh, sweet almonds, and pour boiling water over them; let them stand for two or three minutes, skim out, and drop into cold water. Press between the thumb and finger, and the kernels will readily slip out of the brown covering. Dry between clean towels. Blanched almonds served with raisins make an excellent dessert. BOILED CHESTNUTS.--The large variety, knows as the Italian chestnut, is best for this purpose. Remove the shells, drop into boiling water, and boil for ten minutes, take out, drop into cold water, and rub off the brown skin. Have some clean water boiling, turn the blanched nuts into it, and cook until they can be pierced with a fork. Drain thoroughly, put into a hot dish, dry in the oven for a few minutes, and serve. A cream sauce or tomato sauce may be served with them if liked. MASHED CHESTNUTS.--Prepare and boil the chestnuts as in the preceding recipe. When tender, mash through a colander with a potato masher. Season with cream and salt if desired. Serve hot. TO KEEP NUTS FRESH.--Chestnuts and other thin-shelled nuts may be kept from becoming too dry by mixing with an equal bulk of dry sand and storing in a box or barrel in some cool place. TABLE TOPICS. Who lives to eat, will die by eating.--_Sel._ Fruit bears the closest relation to light. The sun pours a continuous flood of light into the fruits, and they furnish the best portion of food a human being requires for the sustenance of mind and body.--_Alcott._ The famous Dr. John Hunter, one of the most eminent physicians of his time, and himself a sufferer from gout, found in apples a remedy for this very obstinate and distressing malady. He insisted that all of his patients should discard wine and roast beef, and make a free use of apples. Do not too much for your stomach, or it will abandon you.--_Sel._ The purest food is fruit, next the cereals, then the vegetables. All pure poets have abstained almost entirely from animal food. Especially should a minister take less meat when he has to write a sermon. The less meat the better sermon.--_A. Bronson Alcott._ There is much false economy: those who are too poor to have seasonable fruits and vegetables, will yet have pie and pickles all the year. They cannot afford oranges, yet can afford tea and coffee daily.--_Health Calendar._ What plant we in the apple tree? Fruits that shall dwell in sunny June, And redden in the August moon, And drop, when gentle airs come by, That fan the blue September sky, While children come, with cries of glee, And seek there when the fragrant grass Betrays their bed to those who pass At the foot of the apple tree. --_Bryant._ LEGUMES