ng girl,
for aught we know, may yet be mistress of a fine house on Fifth
Avenue; and, if she is, she will, we fear, prove rather an exacting
mistress to Irish Biddy and Bridget; but she will never be threatened
by her cook and chambermaid, after the first one or two have tried the
experiment.

* * * * *

Having written thus far on my article I laid it aside till evening,
when, as usual, I was saluted by the inquiry, "Has papa been writing
anything to-day?" and then followed loud petitions to hear it; and so
I read as far, reader, as you have.

"Well, papa," said Jenny, "what are you meaning to make out there? Do
you really think it would be best for us all to try to go back to that
old style of living you describe? After all, you have shown only the
dark side of an establishment with servants, and the bright side of
the other way of living. Mamma does not have such trouble with her
servants; matters have always gone smoothly in our family; and, if we
are not such wonderful girls as those you describe, yet we may make
pretty good housekeepers on the modern system, after all."

"You don't know all the troubles your mamma has had in your day," said
my wife. "I have often, in the course of my family history, seen the
day when I have heartily wished for the strength and ability to manage
my household matters as my grandmother of notable memory managed hers.
But I fear that those remarkable women of the olden times are like the
ancient painted glass,--the art of making them is lost; my mother was
less than her mother, and I am less than my mother."

"And Marianne and I come out entirely at the little end of the horn,"
said Jenny, laughing; "yet I wash the breakfast cups and dust the
parlors, and have always fancied myself a notable housekeeper."

"It is just as I told you," I said. "Human nature is always the same.
Nobody ever is or does more than circumstances force him to be and do.
Those remarkable women of old were made by circumstances. There were,
comparatively speaking, no servants to be had, and so children were
trained to habits of industry and mechanical adroitness from the
cradle, and every household process was reduced to the very minimum of
labor. Every step required in a process was counted, every movement
calculated; and she who took ten steps, when one would do, lost her
reputation for 'faculty.' Certainly such an early drill was of use in
developing the health and the bod