Housekeeper's Guide (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Housekeeper's Guide<br><br>You will find that the little details are the ones that reveal the systematic housekeeper. Thus, if an early breakfast is desired, the table will be set the evening before; the kindlings for the fire, if she cooks by wood, will be all ready overnight. If she is in a hurry for tea or coffee, her kettle will soon be singing its merry tune, for at first she will only put in a little more than the water necessary for the coffee; after this has boiled and the coffee is made, the kettle will be filled up for the after-breakfast dish-washing. A less thoughtful one would have filled the kettle at once and anxiously waited for it all to boil.<br><br>If you have servants you must be prepared to see them blunder; in America, where servants usually have no especial training, the housekeeper will find it necessary, gently and patiently, to teach by "line upon line, precept upon precept." Many a housekeeper will tell you that, after just such teaching, her servant has suddenly left because she found skilled service would bring higher wages. There is nothing to do in such a case but to begin again, comforting one's self by the thought that somehow , somewhere, the sum total of human comfort has been increased because of her teachings. But a little thought for the personal comfort of a servant; the seeing that her bedroom arrangements are made really neat and desirable; occasional hints and assistance as you see her striving to make her own dresses, etc.; the loan of a book, if she can read; gentleness and patience always - these will do much to attach a servant to one. But in this case, as Mr. Ruskin has shown us in regard to all employers and employes, he who works from the low, selfish motive of thus securing good service for himself will fail. It is only when, forgetting the selfish motive, we really love and desire the good of a servant that we also win the lower good. "In this case, too, 'he who loseth his life shall save it.'"<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.