Two cupfuls of "picked-out" crab meat. Two quarts of boiling water in which one pound of corned pork has been boiled one hour. Yolks of two eggs, well beaten. Two cupfuls of milk - half cream if you can get it. Salt and cayenne.

Let the stock made from the pork get perfectly cold; skim off the fat and re-heat the liquor; add the crab meat and cook half an hour. Heat the milk in a separate sauce-pan; take from the fire and pour gradually upon the beaten yolks. Put this into a bowl and stir in the minced crab with the liquor in which it was cooked. Season to taste. Set in boiling water for five minutes before serving.

Tradition has it that this is the identical recipe used by Martha Washington when at her tide-water home, The White House, in New Kent County, Va. The soup made by it fifty years later is referred to in the following note from ex-President Tyler to a friend with whom he had dined the preceding day.

"Villa Margaret, Tuesday.

"My Dear Sir : - Will it give Mrs. Cary too much trouble to furnish me with a recipe for making the delicious crab-soup she had served up for dinner yesterday? If not, you would much oblige me by furnishing it to the servant for me.

"Truly yours,

"J. Tyler."