fuel--no slight item in any family,--and light,--also absolutely
essential,--have not been taken into account. These make a big hole in
the income which had seemed all-sufficient. It is expedient, also,
occasionally, to have a woman in to do a day's cleaning, and the
weekly wash is a bugbear which makes our young people shudder. The
poor little housewife has many an anxious, tearful hour in striving to
make both ends meet, while the most amiable husband cannot help
wondering audibly "how it is they cannot live as cheaply as other
people do."

In housekeeping, as in all else, one must learn the lesson for one's
self. All the rules and theories in all the books and periodicals in
the country are worth little compared with three months of personal
experience. Happy is the young wife who has had some practice in
housekeeping in her father's house before the heavier responsibility
of a home of her own rests on her shoulders.

Let me remind our Mary, first of all, of the truth that there is no
meanness in economy, and that--as I cannot repeat too often or too
strongly--waste is vulgar. It is not the lady who scorns to save
scraps of butter, who throws the few cold boiled potatoes left from
dinner into the ash-barrel, and empties the teaspoonful of cream from
the bottom of the pitcher into the kitchen sink. Your servant will not
have the brains and foresight to detect in these seemingly useless
articles factors which may aid materially in the construction of a
delicacy, or "help out" to-morrow's breakfast or lunch. It is amazing
to the mistress who is her own cook how long things last and how far
they go. All the interest which a hired cook may take in her work does
not impart the peculiar care which one feels for that which is one's
own.