PRACTICALLY GOOD HOUSE KEEPING
A good house keeper is the fullest and best sense, how great is the significance in the term `a good house keeper! Weather she rule in mansion or cottage, her sway must be over a house hold in which the chief elements of a happy home will not be lacking. Not everyone can realize what the work of a good housekeeper really is.
We see in a well- ordered household everything neat, clean and comfortable, servants doing their work thoroughly, and meals well cooked and punctually served, and we take it far too much for granted that it should be so. A happy home must be well_ managed one.
It is impossible that where extravagance, disorder, reign, there can be the same peace and content among the inmates as where a wisely- governing mind puts all her energies into making home comfortable and happy. This should be the young housekeeper` s first aim, but let her not imagine the details of her work to be so many sordid cares. Never let her lose the love of the beautiful in her anxiety to accomplish the practical. After cleanliness and comfort should come grace and beauty in the home, nor should they ever be lacking.
It costs less money to make a house pretty and attractive than many people fancy, but it does cost time and trouble; still the housekeeper whose heart is in her work will not grudge the hours spent in making places look bright and pleasant, when she sees the result of her labour. A common error that the young housewife makes is to think is to think it almost a necessity that in her role of matron, she must lay aside, and thus lose, all the talents and accomplishments she has cultivated.
How often we hear the cry of these whose singing or playing used to give us so much pleasure! ` Oh, I gave up music when I married. ` What a pity it seems for them to have lost the power of giving enjoyment in this way, and why should they do so while still possessing youth and health? They will say, in all probability, that they have not time for any thing but the care of their home and visiting, but we venture to believe that they could, with good management ,find , at any rate , an hour or two now and then ; and let us remind them, that as time rolls on, their work and cares will probably increase and that they must not imagine it too heavy at the onset.
