Household cookery and laundry work

Mix in a basin the flour, meal, sugar, and soda, with the lumps well rubbed down. Melt the lard, and beat up the egg with a little water. Pour the hot lard among the dry ingredients, and mix well, then the beaten egg, and just enough water to wet all well. Knead it a little, and roll out quite thinly, cut in small rounds or quarters of large ones, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or till the cakes are a pale brown colour. SODA SCONES. 1 lb. Flour. ^ teaspoonful Salt. £ teaspoonful Tartaric Acid. | teaspoonful Carbonate of Soda. Butter Milk. Put the flour in a basin, with the salt, carbonate of soda, and tartaric acid, and mix together. Make it all into a very soft paste with butter milk; sprinkle plenty of flour on the bake-board, and turn the paste out on it. Roll it less than half an inch thick, and cut with a lid or round cutter. Have a griddle or hot plate, on which place the scones, and bake for 5 minutes on each side. DROPPED SCONES. 1 full breakfast-cupful Flour. 1 breakfast-cupful Butter Milk. 2 teaspoonfuls Soft Sugar. ½ teaspoonful Carbonate of Soda. ½ teaspoonful Tartaric Acid. Mix in a basin the flour, sugar, carbonate of soda, and tartaric acid, rubbing the lumps of the soda well out before putting it in. Then add gradually the butter milk, beating it well with the back of a spoon for a few minutes. Have ready and clean a hot griddle or iron plate, which rub over with a rind of bacon or a piece of suet. Put the mixture out in spoonfuls (one spoonful makes a scone), taking care that they are a neat round shape. When the scones are covered with bubbles on the top turn them over with a broad knife. When they are a light brown colour on both sides they are ready, but they should not be turned twice. CREAM SCONES. 1^ breakfast cupfuls of Flour. I 1 teaspoonful of Sugar. Piece of Butter size of Egg, or 1 teaspoonful Baking Powder. J that size if Cream is used. | 1 Cup of Sweet Milk or Cream. Put the flour into a basin, with the baking powder and sugar. Add the butter, and rub it in till it is quite powdered in the flour, then make the whole into a paste with the milk. Divide it in two pieces. Take one piece and roll it out quite thin and round. Cut the edges smooth and even, then cut in eight, similar to the divisions of a wheel. Have a perfectly clean griddle very warm. Bake about 5 minutes altogether, turning the scones once. If cream can be had instead of the milk the butter is unnecessary, or only a small bit need be used. Sick nursing is even more essentially women’s work than housekeeping, and requires knowledge, combined with tenderness and care, a feeling heart, and skilful hands. Fresh air is most essential to a sick-room, as many forms of sickness cause the air to become very impure, and impure air, being lighter than pure, ascends to the roof of the room ; therefore let the window be open a little at the top to permit the foul air to escape. A good fire is also necessary in order to keep up the temperature, as well as to induce a current of fresh air.