she should
watch every process to see what she may learn of nature's secrets, that
she may compare it with what she has read and thus make additions to the
sum of knowledge that may be beneficial to all.

It is not alone because foods have as close a connection with our
well-being that we should study them. They have in themselves an
extraordinary fascination. The daily and hourly companion of the worker
in the household should be the magnifying-glass. The dissecting
microscope is a form of magnifier that is especially adapted for
household use and should be within the reach of every one. To get into
the habit of putting all foods to the test of this infallible little
instrument gives one a great feeling of safety and comfort. Every bag of
oatmeal should be examined, all cereals, especially cornmeal, all
products that have been kept in any storehouse, should be thus tested.
If all the women of the country would use the magnifying-glass on
everything that comes into the house, and promptly reject what is not
perfectly clean, the level of good health and long life would rise
suddenly by perceptible degrees among our people.

If the prospective household administrator cries out that she cannot be
bothered with such little things as these, she will be one of those that
will be left behind. Those that can be bothered are the people that are
to win. The value of the little thing, when it is the pivot for greater
things, is one of the discoveries of modern science; and, strangely
enough, there is no little thing that is not a pivot for greater things.
Our part is to train ourselves to realize this. In the household of the
future there will be nothing that the microscope can reveal or the card
catalog record that will not be of importance to the success of the
whole.

It would be amusing--if it were not so tragic!--to see the utter
serenity with which some of the older women will say, "But I have no
scientific turn of mind, I do not care for the microscope!" It is as if
they said: "But I prefer to murder the members of my family; I do not
care to give them the key that will let them out of imprisonment where
they have been carelessly but dolorously confined; I have no
predilection for dashing away the poison from their lips when
unwillingly they are about to drink it!" To such a woman either the word
"duty" has no meaning or else she is lacking in instruction as to what
duty is. But the coming Country Girl will avoid the mis