Six pounds of lean beef. The shin is a good piece for this purpose. Have the bone well cracked, carefully extracting the marrow, every bit of which should be put into the soup. Six quarts of water. The stock must be prepared the day before the soup is needed. Put the beef, bones and all with the water, in a close vessel and set it where it will heat gradually. Let it boil very slowly for six hours at least, only uncovering the pot once in a while to see if there is danger of the water sinking too rapidly. Should this be the case, replenish with boiling water, taking care not to put in too much. During the seventh hour, take out the meat and set the soup away, closely covered, until next morning. About an hour before dinner, remove the cake of fat from the surface of the stock, set the soup over the fire, and throw in a little salt to bring up the scum. When this has been skimmed off carefully, put in your vegetables. These should be: Two carrots, three turnips, one-half head of white cabbage, one pint of green corn - or dried shaker corn, soaked over night, one head celery, one quart tomatoes. These should be prepared for the soup by slicing them very small, and stewing them in barely enough water to cover them, until they break to pieces. Cook the cabbage by itself in two waters - throwing the first away. The only exception to the general dissolution, is in a single carrot, which should likewise be cooked alone and whole, until thoroughly done, and set aside to cool, when the rest of the vegetables, with the water in which they were boiled, are added to the soup. Return the pot to the fire with the vegetables and stock, and boil slowly for half an hour from the time ebullition actually begins. Strain, without pressing, only shaking and lightly stirring the contents of the colander. The vegetables having been added with all their juices already cooked, much boiling and squeezing are not needed, and only make the soup cloudy. Cut the reserved carrot into dice and drop into the clear liquor after it is in the tureen; also, if you like, a handful of vermicelli, or macaroni which has been boiled tender in clear water. The seasoning of this excellent soup is a matter of taste. Some use only salt and white pepper. Others like with this a few blades of mace, and boil in the stock a handful of sweet herbs. Send to the table very hot, and have the soup-plates likewise heated.