TO BOIL ASPARAGUS

Clean the stalks of grit, wash in cold water and be sure to tie up the asparagus in bundles of fifteen or twenty when you go to boil them. Have the water on the full boil, in which there should be a good table- spoonful of salt ; cook twenty minutes outside ; drain thoroughly, steaming them slightly when they are cooked. Serve on toast, with a sa^ce of melted butter. Asparagus boiled plain and eaten cold, with a plain oil and vinegar dressing, is excellent. Or cut the asparagus, when boiled, into little bits, leaving out white end ; make a gravy of the sec- ond water the asparagus is boiled in — the first should be poured off when nearly done and a second one poured on, if a gravy is made — a lump of butter, salt and pepper, thickened with a spoonful of flour, mixed up with cold water, if a thick gravy is liked.