and willing enough to let you rest. Keep your cheery manner: all
higher considerations aside, it is money in your pocket to look
cheerful. I have known one or two good, faithful, conscientious
nurses who were dismissed from case after case, merely because
they looked "so doleful." It may seem curious to place a
commercial value on a smile, but in reality it amounts almost to
that.

Be very careful to have your dresses fit you perfectly, and have
them well laundered, especially do not have them too stiff. In
this connection I cannot do better than to relate an incident that
I heard of some time ago. A nurse went to care for a patient whose
first nurse had been called to her own home, and she had not been
in the room an hour before the patient called her and taking her
hand said, "My dear, I can't tell you how thankful I feel that
your dress is not too short in the waist. Miss----'s dress was
frightful!" This was only a nervous woman's whim, but our success
as nurses depends in many cases on just such whims, so it is well
to be careful. When the patient is well enough for you to come to
the family table at meal time, be sure to have on a spotless
apron, and let no sickroom odors announce your presence. It is
worth more to a nurse to have soft, dry, warm, sympathetic hands,
than to have the prettiest face ever seen under a cap, so be
careful of them; after using any antiseptics always have at hand
glycerin and rose water, cold cream, or something soothing to use.
Never put a cold or clammy hand on a patient. If it is cold and
dry it can be laid on a hot, aching head, but never do so if it is
the least damp. If the hand is always damp, pour on it a little
alcohol, or eau de cologne, if that is preferred, or some toilet
water, then put it on the patient's head, and it will be all