himself took a part in it.

"Do you mean to tell me," he once demanded, in the days of the
dreadfully incompetent maids who preceded Lizzie, "that it is
becoming practically impossible to get a good general servant?"

"Well, I wish you'd try it yourself," his wife answered, grimly
quiet. "It's just about wearing me out! I don't know what has become
of the good old maid-of-all-work," she presently pursued, with a
sigh, "but she has simply vanished from the face of the earth. Even
the greenest girls fresh from the other side begin to talk about
having the washing put out, and to have extra help come in to wash
windows and beat rugs! I don't know what we're coming to--you teach
them to tell a blanket from a sheet, and how to boil coffee, and set
a table, and then away they go to get more money somewhere. Dear me!
Your father's mother used to have girls who had the wash on the line
before eight o'clock--"

"Yes, but then Grandma's house was simpler," Sandy contributed, a
little doubtfully. "You know, Grandma never put on any style,
Mother--"

"Her house was always one of the most comfortable, most hospitable--
"

"Yes, I know, Mother!" Alexandra persisted eagerly. "But Fanny never
had to answer the door, and Grandma used to let her leave the
tablecloth on between meals--Grandma told me so herself!--and no
fussing with doilies, or service plates under the soup plates, or
glass saucers for dessert. And Grandma herself used to help wipe