mplaints; but she can sweep, cook, wash, and do
the duties of a well-ordered house, with modern arrangements, and
grow healthier every year. The times in New England when all women
did housework a part of every day, were the times when all women
were healthy.--_Harriet Beecher Stowe._

The best ways are commonly the easiest ways and those that give most
comfort to the household. _Know how_ is a great labor-saving
invention, on which there is no patent.--_Sel._

Who sweeps a room as for God's law
Makes that and th' action fine.

--_George Herbert._

A YEAR'S BREAKFASTS & DINNERS

What to get for the family meals is frequently a most perplexing
problem, especially when one remembers the many important points that
should enter into the arrangement of the daily bill of fare. A
well-arranged menu should be composed of articles which supply the
requisite amount of food elements for proper nutrition, palatably
prepared. These should be adapted to the season and also to the family
purse. There should be an agreeable and pleasing change from day to day,
with never too great variety at one meal, and no incongruous association
of foods that do not harmonize, upon the same bill of fare. The amount
of time and strength available for the preparation of the meal must also
receive consideration. The problem would be easier of solution could one
select her menu wholly from fresh material each time; but in most
households the odds and ends and "left-over" foods must be utilized, and
if possible compounded into dishes that will not have the savor of
yesterday's breakfast or dinner.

The making of a bill of fare offers opportunity for thought and study
under all circumstances; but it is often particularly difficult for the
housewife long accustomed to the use of foods of a different character,
to make up a menu of hygienic dishes properly adapted to all
requirements. For such of our readers as need aid in this direction, we
give in this chapter bills of fare for fifty-two weeks' breakfasts and
dinners. Not that we presume to have arranged a model dietary which
every one can adopt,--individual preferences, resources, and various
other conditions would preclude that,--but we have endeavored to prepare
a list of menus suitable for use should circumstances admit, and which
we trust may be found helpfully suggestive of good, hygienic living.

We have given meats no place upon these bills