not be so harassed. But under
no circumstances must any mistress of a household permit habitual waste
in such matters. When the establishment is so large as to be to a great
extent removed from the immediate supervision of the mistress, all she
can do is to keep a careful watch over every item of expenditure, and
by every means in her power to let her servants feel that it is to their
interest as well as to her own to keep within due bounds. A good cook is
always a good manager. She makes many a meal of what an inferior cook
would waste. The housekeeper should therefore insist on having good
cooking at a reasonable cost, and never keep a cook who does not make
the most of everything. In a large household a mistress cannot look
after the sifting of cinders, but she can check her coal bills, and by
observation find out in what department the waste is going on. It may
not be possible to pay periodical visits to the gas-meter to see if the
tap is turned on to the full when such force is not necessary, but she
can from quarter to quarter compare notes, or have fixed, where it is
easy for her to get at it, one of the gas-regulators now in use. And
thus, by the exercise of judicious control and supervision, the guiding
mind of the mistress will make itself felt in every department of the
household without any undue worry to herself. The mistress of a small
household who has things more under her immediate control, and whose
income, no less than her sense of moral obligation, obliges her to look
carefully after the outgoings, need not be told what a trial it is to be
constantly on the watch to prevent waste. Probably she is compelled to
leave a certain quantity of stores for general use; indeed, we doubt
very much if there is anything saved by the daily giving out of ounces
and spoonfuls of groceries, for if a servant is disposed to be
wasteful, she will be equally so with the small as the larger quantity.

What perpetual worry is caused by seeing how soap is left in the water
until it is so soft as to have lost half its value! How many pence go in
most households in that way every week, we wonder!

The scrubbing-brush also is left in water with the soap. A fairly good
brush costs at least two shillings, and as one so treated only lasts
half the proper time you may safely calculate that a shilling is soon
wasted in that way. Brushes of all sorts are, as a rule, most carelessly
used, and left about anyhow instead of being hung