3 pints soup stock.

1 pint rich milk.

Outside stalks of celery, about 4.

1 small onion, minced.

Small piece of lean cooked ham.

1 tablespoon flour.

Butter size of an egg.

Salt and white pepper.

Boil the soup stock with the onion and scrap of ham in it for flavor. Cut up the celery - about enough to fill a large cup - in dice shapes, and boil it ten minutes in water; then strain the water away. Mix the butter and flour together, and stir them into the boiling stock to thicken it slighty, then strain it into another saucepan and put in the parboiled celery and the pint of milk. Season with pepper and salt to taste. Let it simmer ten min-utes or more after the celery is in.

Mince a piece of green leaf of celery very fine, and sprinkle it from a knifepoint into the soup. This makes six or seven plates.

Butter and flour for thickening is the orthodox article (roux), but should the butter fail to arrive punctually at the time the flour can be mixed with a little water instead. The stock used should have been skimmed free from fat, if not the soup must be.

Cost - 21c for 2 quarts, or 3c per plate.