They look like pale and rather dirty wax, while the syrup with which they are surrounded resembles the water in which potatoes have been over-boiled.

The prettiest way of sending them to table is as follows:--Take, say a teacupful of rice, wash it very carefully, boil it, and let it get dry and cold.

Take the syrup from the pears and taste it, and if not sweet enough add some powdered sugar.

Put the rice in a glass dish, and make a very small well in the centre, and pour all the syrup into this, so that it soaks into the rice at the bottom of the dish without affecting the appearance of the surface.

In the meantime, place the pears themselves on a dish, and let the syrup drain off them, and if you can let them stand for an hour or two to let them dry all the better.