Sum folks are so enlightened they kant bear rats, but az i lay in mi bed, at mi boarding hous, at the deceased hours ov night, it iz one ov mi priviliges, tew hear the rats chawing holes throu the base boards, and playing tag in the wainscote. Rats are very prolifick, one pair ov assorted rats, will keep a phamily in rats for years. Rats are very easy tew keep, thare aint but phew things but what they will eat, and them phew things are locked up. Rats are not a subjekt ov diet in this country, but i am told bi missionarys, that rat pi, iz thick in China. I shouldn’t wonder if rat pi might be good, but i hav alwus accustomed mi self to plain vittles. _Mister Barnes._--Hash iz made out ov cast oph vittles. Hash haz done more for the human race ov man than almost enny other breed ov food. For breakfast, a small tender-lion steak, sum few ham & eggs, 3 baked potatoze, a plate of buttered toast, sum slap jacks, 2 cups of coffy, and sum hash iz good. I like to eat hash this way better than enny other. Sum pholks alwuz raize their noze up at hash. If yu search history, with one eye, yu will find theze folks, 20, or 30 years ago, more or less, were born on hash. I hav seen hash miself, that i had mi doubts about, but i et it, and still liv. I love hash as a principle, and this iz mi rule, i watch the landlady, and if she eats it, i take the sekond plate. This makes me very popular at all the boarding houses which I attend. If folks would be a leetle more penurious with their hash, and not git stubs ov tallo kandles, babys morocko shoes, and now and then a fine tooth comb, that want more than half worn out, into their hash, hash would stand to day, at the head of all mux food. _Mister Bartlett._--Ov all the animals who waz brought akrost the waters, into this country, by that grate improver ov the breed ov kattle Noah, i consider the cow the most respektable. A cow iz a kind ov old aunt in the family. I dont kno ov a more honest, and salubrious sight, than a brindle cow, that wont kik, and who gives 10 quarts ov milk that aint watered. It iz unkommon hard to git a cow to giv milk that aint watered now daze, thare iz a grate difference in cows about this. It iz sed the cowcumber derives its name from the cow, but whether this iz so, or not, i kant find out. Probably it iz, becauze they resemble the cow so mutch. The cowcumber cums under the hed ov gardin sass, and they gro on a running vine, and the vine kan beat every vine running, for 100 yards, in Amerika, after it gits started. They are a little balky about starting. I hav known a cowcumber vine to run 15 foot in one night besides giving birth to 7 young cowcumbers on the way. Kowcumbers kut up into thin slices, and rooled in peper, and psalt, and soaked in vinegar, are good, for a sharp pain in the hebdominal region. A cowcumber iz about the only thing that i kan remember ov now, that iz good for nothing, after it reaches perfektshun.