k a pan of hot water in which I had dissolved a bit of soap,
and I attacked the disagreeable things--the saucepans and broilers and
pots and pans. They are very useful, but they are not ornamental. All
nice housekeepers are very particular to cleanse them thoroughly,
removing every speck of grease from both the outside and the inside, and
drying them until they shine.

It isn't worth while to ruin your hands or make them coarse and rough
when washing pots and pans. I use a mop, and do not put my hands into
the hot, greasy water. Mother says one may do housework and look like a
lady if she has common sense.

I finished the pots and pans and set my cups and saucers in a row, my
plates scraped and piled together, my silver in the large china bowl,
and my glasses were all ready for the next step. I had two pans, one
half-filled with soapy, the other with clear water, and having given my
dainty dishes a bath in the first I treated them to a dip in the
second, afterward letting them drain for a moment on the tray at my
right hand. Veva and Marjorie wiped the silver and glass with the soft
linen towels which are kept for these only; next I took my plates, then
the platters, and finally the knives. Just as we finished the last dish
I heard grandmother's tap, tap on the floor over my head.

There's an art in everything, even in washing dishes. I fancy one might
grow fond of it, if only one took an interest in always doing it well.

Perhaps it is because my parents are Friends, and I have been taught
that it is foolish to be flurried and flustered and to hurry over any
work, but I do think that one gets along much faster when one does not
make too much haste.

I do hope I may always act just as mother does, she is so sweet and
peaceful, never cross, never worried. Now, dear grandmamma is much more
easily vexed. But then she is older and she has the Van Doren headaches.

Tap, tap came the call of the ebony stick. I ran up to grandmamma's
room.

CHAPTER VI.

A CANDY PULL.

Of all things in the world, what should grandmamma propose but my
sending for Miss Muffet! Great-aunt Jessamine had gone away long before.

"I believe it was to-day that the girls meant to have the candy pull at
Jeanie's, wasn't it?" grandmamma asked.

"Yes, darling grandmamma," I said, "they may have it; but I am not going
to desert you."

"Thee is very kind, dearie," replied grandmamma; "but I need only quiet,
and Hetty will come out of h