she had a very beautiful thin
dress to be washed, and had a very poor laundress to do it who might
spoil it; don't you think she would wish she knew how to do it herself?"

"Besides," said her mother, "however could she teach an ignorant
servant to wash and iron if she did not know how?"

"Of course she must know," said her grandmother, sternly. "I will teach
her myself."

So on Friday night Margaret made up a bundle of clothes as she was told;
"samples," grandmother called them, because there were some of every
sort of thing found in a regular washing; these they took down to the
laundry.

"The first thing is to sort the clothes," the lesson began. "Put the
white, starched things in one pile; the bed and table linen in another;
the flannels by themselves; the stockings by themselves; the
handkerchiefs and colored things in two more piles.

"Many people do not soak clothes over night, and it is not necessary to
do so, but I am going to teach you to do it because it is the easiest
way. If you are ready, look over the white things first for spots.
Coffee, tea, and fruit stains must have boiling water poured through
them till they disappear. Rust must be rubbed with lemon juice and salt
and laid on a new, shiny tin in the sunshine till the spot disappears;
some people use acid, but this is apt to eat the cloth. Blood stains
must be soaked in cold water; get the handkerchief you had on your cut
finger and put it in this pail. Now wet the white things only, rub on a
little soap, and get out every spot; put them in nice rolls, the soapy
side turned in, and lay them all in the warm water in these two tubs,
clothing in one, and table and bed linen in the other--never put the two
together. Do not soak the flannels or they will shrink; nor the colored
things, or they will fade; nor the stockings.

"The handkerchiefs, well soaped and rubbed and squeezed, go into a pail
of water all alone with a tablespoonful of kerosene to kill any germs of
cold in the head which may be in one of them, and would spread to all
the handkerchiefs. The oil boils out and does not smell after they are
ironed. That is all for to-night, but be up bright and early in the
morning, for only lazy people hang out their washing at noon."

The next day Margaret came into the laundry with her biggest apron and
her sleeves rolled up and pinned to her shoulders, ready for work.

"Flannels first," she was told. "Draw two tubs of warm water, one just
exactl