Family Dinners.—­At the family dinner, the grape fruit or oyster cocktail, or the raw oysters which form the first course, is on the table when the guests are seated.  The grape fruit may be served in glasses, like the cocktail.  If oysters are served, the maid passes the condiments.  She then removes these plates, replacing them with service plates as she does so, and brings in the soup.  This the hostess serves and the maid carries about.  While this is being eaten—­celery or olives being passed after the guests are helped—­the maid slips out in the kitchen to dish up the vegetables unless these are already in the warmer.  Returning, she removes the soup-plates, never taking more than two at a time.  She then brings on the joint or roast, placing it before the host, who proceeds to serve it.  (If oysters are served first, a fish course is generally omitted; indeed, so many courses tax one’s resources too severely.) The maid carries about the dinner plates, removing the service plate with the right hand and placing the other with the left.  She then passes the vegetables.  The serving begins with the lady at the host’s right hand.  If the piece de resistance is a turkey, white and dark meat and a portion of dressing are placed on each plate; gravy and the vegetables, then cranberry or currant jelly, are passed.  Here the waitress should refill water glasses.

The plates are then removed for the salad course, and the table cleared.  This should be ready on the plates, and kept where it will be perfectly cold.  While this is being brought on, the hostess will start dishes of salted nuts and bonbons down the table, the guests passing them.  After the salad the plates are removed and the dessert brought in.  This may be a mould of ice cream or a pudding; pie is seldom or never served.  This the host or hostess serves.  The coffee service may be brought in, and the hostess pours it; little cakes or wafers, or mints, are usually passed with it; then the maid is excused from further service.  The hostess always gives the signal for leaving the table by a slight nod toward the lady on her husband’s right, and rising.

[702 Mothers’ remedies]

Requirements.—­A dinner of this kind requires a serving-table or sideboard where china and silver may be in readiness.  Such an aid is even more indispensable where the hostess serves the meal herself.  Many very enjoyable “company dinners” are served where the hostess is also the cook, and she and her husband serve.  If one has daughters they should be taught how to serve, and may rise from the table to change plates and bring in courses with perfect propriety.  In such case, the soup is served at the table and, as it is awkward to pass without spilling, some one should carry it about if more than two or three guests are present.  The roast or fowl is carved by the host; vegetables are on the table and are passed from hand to hand.  After this course the hostess, or the daughter delegated to do