ing, and on the
days on which the heaviest work--washing and ironing--falls, madam
would do well to assume considerable of the regular work herself, the
care of bedrooms, dusting and putting to rights of living and dining
rooms, preparation of lunch, and whatever else seems best. All of the
hardest work should be done in the morning, before the first freshness
of maid and day is worn away. After you have established a
satisfactory schedule abide by it and oblige your maid to do the same.
It soon becomes automatic and is, therefore, accomplished with less
exhaustion of mind and body. The regular day's work is about as
follows: The maid rises an hour or an hour and a half before the
breakfast hour, throws open her bed and window, and goes to the
kitchen, where she starts the fire (if a coal range is used), fills and
puts on the teakettle, and puts the cereal on to cook. Then she airs
out dining and living rooms and hall, brushes up any litter, wipes off
bare floors, dusts, closes windows, opens furnace drafts or looks after
stoves, and, leaving tidiness in her wake, sets the table and completes
the preparations for breakfast. The amount of work she can accomplish
before it is served depends upon herself and upon how elaborate the
meal may be. After the main part of the breakfast has been served she
may be excused from the dining room, and takes this time to open
bedroom windows and empty slops, after which she has her own breakfast.
When the breakfast table has been cleared, the dining room set to
rights, food taken care of, and utensils put to soak, the mistress
inspects pantry and refrigerator, offers suggestions for the disposal
of left-overs, arranges with the maid for the day's meals, and makes
out the list for grocer and butcher, adding whatever she thinks best to
the list of needed staples already prepared by the maid--tea, sugar,
soap, etc. Never leave the entire ordering of supplies to the maid,
her part being simply to jot down on a pad hung in the kitchen for that
purpose a memorandum of such things as need replenishing. When the
conference is ended the maid washes the dishes, puts kitchen and pantry
in order, fills and cleans lamps, prepares dishes which require slow
cooking, makes the beds--unless her mistress prefers to do this
herself--and tidies up bed- and bathrooms. If the living rooms were
not dusted before breakfast, she attends to it now, perhaps sweeping
front porch and steps, and is then rea