the kitchen; not, as plates are, at the back-kitchen sink. Wooden or iron spoons are best for kitchen use. Wipe your bread and cheese pans out daily with a dry cloth, and`scald them once a-week.

Never draw up your jack with a weight upon it. Keep all spices and dried herbs as much as possible from the air and dust; and keep all sauces, oil, vinegar, &c., in well-corked bottles. The salt-box should be kept near the fire, and closely covered from dust.

When a beer-barrel is emptied, the bung should be taken out, the barrel well washed out, and exposed to the air as freely as possible.

A little soda will remove the sediment from tea-kettles and metal tea-pots, which is usually called fur. If a flat oystershell be put into a tea-kettle and kept there, it will attract the stony particles that are in the water, and so prevent the formation of fur inside. All pots and saucepans, dish-covers, &c., should be thoroughly dried after use and cleaning, before they are put away; the toasting-fork also should be wiped dry and rubbed with a bit of leather after use.

Always wipe a tea-urn dry, or it rusts. Cups and saucers must be washed in hot, but not boiling, water.

Glasses must be washed always in cold water, nicely dried, and polished with a soft cloth or wash-leather.

Various.

"DO AS YOU WOULD BE DONE BY."

Cook. "Please, ma'am, the butcher has called for orders." Mrs. Wilson. "I shall not want any thing of him to-day, cook; your master does not dine at home, we shall not therefore need a joint: but when the fishmonger calls let me know."

Cook. "I will, ma'am. Have you any orders to give about dinner?"

Mrs. W. "You had better hash the mutton and make a plain pudding for your own and Sarah's dinner."

Cook. "The mutton, maʼam ?”

Mrs. W. "Yes; the joint that was left yesterday."

Cook.

Mrs. W. 66

"Oh, please, ma'am, that is gone." "Was it all eaten, then, yesterday?" Cook. "No, ma'am, but what was left after our dinner I gave away.'

Mrs. W. "Gave away, cook!

Cook. "Yes, ma'am, to a poor woman who came to the door this morning: she said she had not tasted a bit of victuals for two days; had no money; and, indeed, she seemed in such great distress, that I gave her a few bits of bread, and the remains of the mutton."

Mrs. W. "The story which the poor woman told you may be all true, cook; but why did you not consult me before you supplied her wants? My permission, I think, ought to have been asked, as it was my food that was to be given to her."

Cook. "You were busy, ma'am, at the time; and as I knew you were very kind to the poor, I thought you would not blame me.'

Mrs. W. "Indeed I do blame you, cook; and any servant that, on any pretence whatever, gives away her employer's property without permission, deserves severe

censure."

Cook. "There was not much of it, ma'am."

Mrs. W. "That is not the point, cook: a servant has no more right to give a small thing away than a great one; to take that which is only worth a farthing, than that which is worth a pound. Our Lord says, in the parable of the unjust steward, he that is unfaithful in little will be unfaithful also in much.' It is as dishonest, also, for a servant to give her employer's food to the hungry, as it is to give her money to the distressed. For example, I sent your fellow-servant this morning with sixpence, to purchase an article which I knew would cost fourpence; but suppose she had only brought me back a penny, and when I asked her for the remainder of the change had told me that she had given it to a beggar in the street, do you think she would have done right ?"

Cook. "No, ma'am; certainly not."

Mrs. W. "Then as it would not have been honest in her to give my money, neither is it right in you, cook, to give my food away, which costs money."

Cook. "I did not think

Mrs. W. 66 Perhaps not, cook; I hope it is want of thought, and not want of principle; but as it is very desirable

that

you

should think upon the subject, I must adopt some plan of leading you to do so."

PART II.

A few weeks after the conversation related in the last chapter, Mrs. Wilson, overhearing such a noise in the kitchen as led her to suppose that her servants were at high words, rang the bell to inquire the cause. It was answered by Sarah, the housemaid.

Mrs. Wilson.

"How is it, Sarah, that you and cook cannot agree this morning? You are usually very good friends."

Sarah. "Cook charges me with taking her shoes and hiding them, maʼam, and I am sure I have not touched them, nor any of her things; but she is always finding fault with me about something."

Mrs. W. "I doubt that, Sarah; I never heard cook speak otherwise than well of you, and it is the first time you have spoken ill of cook. You are both, I fear, rather hasty in your tempers, and hasty persons are very liable to mistakes. Tell cook I want her."

Sarah. "Yes, ma'am."

Mrs. W. "So you and Sarah have been disagreeing this morning about your shoes, cook?"

Cook. "I merely asked her what she had done with my shoes, ma'am. I know I left them on the stairs this morning; and as there is no one in the house but her, she must have removed them though she denies it."

Mrs. W. "Are you quite right, cook, in saying that there is no one in the house but Sarah? Is that the fact?" Cook. "No, ma'am, not exactly; I meant, no one but yourself and master."

Mrs. W. "Just so, cook; and as you are not quite correct in the first part of your charge, it is possible that you may be wrong in the latter portion also. Indeed, I know that you are mistaken; for, to be candid with you, I took the shoes, it was not Sarah.”

Cook. "Well, how very strange, ma'am ! who would have thought of your removing them?"

Mrs. W.

"The act may appear singular, but I had a reason for doing so, and I hope a good one."

Cook. "No doubt, ma'am; but will you please to tell me where I can find them? I was bringing them down to be

mended, when the door-bell rang, and in my hurry I left them on the stairs, and, after answering the bell, forgot to fetch them."

Mrs. W. "I really cannot tell you where your shoes are now, as more than two hours have passed since I saw them." Cook. "Are they not in the house, then, ma'am?"

Mrs. W. "No, cook, nor are they likely to be, for, to tell you the truth, I have given them away."

Cook. "Is it possible!"

Mrs. W. "It is indeed. I gave them away to a poor woman, whom I saw sitting at my door this morning. She was about your age and size, but not a common beggar; indeed, she asked for nothing, but, seeing that she had no shoes on, and that her feet were sadly swollen from the effects of walking, I gave her the shoes which I found on the stairs, and I was glad to find they fitted her nicely. Poor thing! she was very grateful, and the tears stood in her eyes as she left the door."

Cook. "But they were my shoes, ma'am !"

Mrs. W. "I know that; but the poor woman had no shoes, and you have two pair. Besides that, your shoes were a good deal worn, and therefore of not much value, cook."

At these remarks, poor cook changed countenance; the colour came and went in her face rapidly. She was evidently very angry, but afraid to speak her feelings. She was full of thought, but did not like to express her thoughts. She felt "that her mistress had taken a great liberty with her things; that her shoes were her own, and that no one had any right to them but herself; that it was very cruel that what she had worked hard to get, should thus be given away." She thought it was bad enough to lose her shoes, but it was worse not to tell her beforehand what was going to be done with them. Then she thought of "giving warning instantly," for she could not think of staying longer in a house where she could not leave her things about without losing them. She thought of "speaking her mind plainly, for it was no better than robbery to serve her so." "She would not put up quietly with the loss,-that she would not, but make her mistress replace her shoes, or buy her a new pair." But while these thoughts were passing rapidly through her mind, there was something in her mistress's look and manner which carried cook's thoughts back to the mutton! and, therefore, amidst all her thoughts she re'mained silent.

Mrs. Wilson. "Well, cook, I see from your countenance that you do not approve of what I have done, nor of my method of doing it. You do not think it right for another to give away your things, but that your leave ought to have been asked, though it were to clothe a poor woman. And in all this you are quite right. But you are not correct when you suppose that there is one law for the mistress and another for her servant in such matters;-that what it is wrong in me to do with your property, it is right for you to do with mine. No, cook; our Lord says, 'that we are each to love our neighbour as ourselves: that whatever we would have others do to us, we are to do to them.' But this golden rule, I am sorry to say, you have lost sight of. When E spoke to you about the mutton, I was in hopes you would not have repeated the offence for which I reproved you, but I have good reason to believe that you have done so. It is true you have not given away anything likely to be missed; they have been little things, broken victuals; but these, I repeat, you have no more right to give away, than I have to give away your shoes."

Cook. "Oh, never mind the shoes, ma'am. I".

Mrs. W. "But I do mind, cook. In acting as I have done, I have only consulted your welfare. I had no intention of wronging you; I have no wish to be liberal at your cost, to make others glad by making you sorry. Such conduct would neither be kind nor honest. It is my intention to give you another pair of shoes; and if this incident should only teach you the right of property, and that it is the duty of a servant to do as she would be done by,' I shall be very thankful, and, while you will be greatly benefited, my object in removing the shoes will have been gained."

6

Aunt Deborah, in Servants' Magazine.

PREPARATION FOR WASHING.

DIRTY linen should never be kept in a sleeping-room; it is generally put into large bags or covered baskets in a closet; but where a room can be spared for the purpose, it is best to have a strong line across, and throw any towels or damp