he mothers. "She will take to it when her
time comes, just as a duck takes to water," add the fathers; and the
matter is thus dismissed as settled.

In the mean time the "she" referred to--the average daughter of average
parents in both city and country--neither "learns at home," nor "takes to
it naturally," save in exceptional cases; and the reason for this is
found in the love, which, like much of the love given, is really only a
higher form of selfishness. The busy mother of a family, who has fought
her own way to fairly successful administration, longs to spare her
daughters the petty cares, the anxious planning, that have helped to eat
out her own youth; and so the young girl enters married life with a vague
sense of the dinners that must be, and a general belief that somehow or
other they come of themselves. And so with all household labor. That to
perform it successfully and skillfully, demands not only training, but the
best powers one can bring to bear upon its accomplishment, seldom enters
the mind; and the student, who has ended her course of chemistry or
physiology enthusiastically, never dreams of applying either to every-day
life.

This may seem a digression; and yet, in the very outset, it is necessary
to place this work upon the right footing, and to impress with all
possible earnestness the fact, that Household Science holds every other
science in tribute, and that only that home which starts with this
admission and builds upon the best foundation the best that thought can
furnish, has any right to the name of "home." The swarms of drunkards, of
idiots, of insane, of deaf and dumb, owe their existence to an ignorance
of the laws of right living, which is simply criminal, and for which we
must be judged; and no word can be too earnest, which opens the young
girl's eyes to the fact that in her hands lie not alone her own or her
husband's future, but the future of the nation. It is hard to see beyond
one's own circle; but if light is sought for, and there is steady resolve
and patient effort to do the best for one's individual self, and those
nearest one, it will be found that the shadow passes, and that progress is
an appreciable thing.

Begin in your own home. Study to make it not only beautiful, but perfectly
appointed. If your own hands must do the work, learn every method of
economizing time and strength. If you have servants, whether one or more,
let the same laws rule. It is not easy, I admit; no