The table can be set, and the dining or sitting room swept, or merely
brushed up and dusted, in the intervals of getting breakfast. To have
every thing clean, hot, and not only well prepared but ready on time, is
the first law, not only for breakfast, but for every other meal.

After breakfast comes the dish-washing, dreaded by all beginners, but
needlessly so. With a full supply of all conveniences,--plenty of soap and
sapolio, which is far better and cleaner to use than either sand or ashes;
with clean, soft towels for glass and silver; a mop, the use of which not
only saves the hands but enables you to have hotter water; and a full
supply of coarser towels for the heavier dishes,--the work can go on
swiftly. Let the dish-pan be half full of hot soap and water. _Wash glass
first_, paying no attention to the old saying that "hot water rots glass."
Be careful never to put glass into hot water, bottom first, as the sudden
expansion may crack it. Slip it in edgeways, and the finest and most
delicate cut-glass will be safe. _Wash silver next._ Hot suds, and instant
wiping on dry soft cloths, will retain the brightness of silver, which
treated in this way requires much less polishing, and therefore lasts
longer. If any pieces require rubbing, use a little whiting made into a
paste, and put on wet. Let it dry, and then polish with a chamois-skin.
Once a month will be sufficient for rubbing silver, if it is properly
washed. _China comes next_--all plates having been carefully scraped, and
all cups rinsed out. To fill the pan with unscraped and unrinsed dishes,
and pour half-warm water over the whole, is a method too often adopted;
and the results are found in sticky dishes and lustreless silver. Put all
china, silver, and glass in their places as soon as washed. Then take any
tin or iron pans, wash, wipe with a dry towel, and put near the fire to
dry thoroughly. A knitting-needle or skewer may be kept to dig out corners
unreachable by dishcloth or towel, and if perfectly dried they will remain
free from rust.