and rub, afterward using a clean piece of flannel to polish with. To Garnish the Flatter. — ^TJse the leaves of the water- cress whenever you can get them ; they are prettier than anything else ; but parsley and small celery leaves will do. The Use of a Raw Egg. — How often we hear women who do their own work say that by the time they have prepared a meal, and it is ready for the table, they are too tired to cat ! One way to mitigate this evil is to take, about half an hour before dinner, a raw egg, beat it until light, put in a little sugar, flavor it, and drink it down. It will remove the faint, tired-out feeling, and will not spoil your appetite for dinner. Plenty of fresh air in the kitchen does a good deal to relieve this trouble, and you do not then take your dinner in ^^at the pores,'' as Dickens's old Joey declared he took in the wine. How to Triumph over Absent-Mindedness. — Many of the difficulties arising from absent-mindedness in hired help may be removed if the mistress of the house has a habit of making a regular programme for the day's work. A bit of personal experience may not be amiss. I had a girl who was one of the most obliging persons I ever saw, but she could not remember the common and usual order of the morning's work. Things were always going wrong, unless at just such an hour I appeared in the kitchen and directed that the vegetables be prepared for dinner, etc. At last we hit upon the plan of hanging a written programme of the work to be done, and the order in which it ought to be done, over the sink. This worked so well that when without help I keep up the practice, for I confess to the fa<5t that when I am out of the kitchen my mind is out of it too, and I have wasted some valuable time standing around in cor- ners of the pantry and kitchen trying to reproduce the con- ditions which gave rise to thoughts of work that ought to be done ; but with the help of the programme made out the MISCELLANEOUS HINTS 91 night before, and changed as circumstances seem to require next morning, have been able to do many things which otherwise would have been forgotten, or remembered when it was too late or very inconvenient to do them. Pie-crust will Keep. — Somebody may not knoAv that if she makes more pie-crust than she cares to use, it will keep for a day or two. Sprinkle a little flour over it, and set it in a cool place ; it will be flaky and crisp without being rich. An Economical Crumb-cloth. — A red table-cloth that is too much faded to be used on the table makes a good crumb- cloth. Starch it as stiff as you can easily, iron perfectly smooth, taking care to pull the edges straight and even ; pin it to the carpet instead of tacking it, as then it will not be so much trouble to take it up, and you will wash it just as soon as it needs it. It will keep clean a long time, and, even if you can afford a handsome cloth, it is convenient to use this when the other is up to be cleaned. How to Make an Old Japanese Umbrella Useful. — Shut it partly together, then put a wire around the top, tie a ribbon to the handle, and use it for a scrap-bag or a waste-paper bag.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

and rub, afterward using a clean piece of flannel to polish with. To Garnish the Platter. — Use the leaves of the watercress whenever you can get them ; they are prettier than anything else ; but parsley and small celery leaves will do. The Use of a Raw Egg. — How often we hear women who do their own work say that by the time they have prepared a meal, and it is ready for the table, they are too tired to cat ! One way to mitigate this evil is to take, about half an hour before dinner, a raw egg, beat it until light, put in a little sugar, flavor it, and drink it down. It will remove the faint, tired-out feeling, and will not spoil your appetite for dinner. Plenty of fresh air in the kitchen does a good deal to relieve this trouble, and you do not then take your dinner in "at the pores," as Dickens's old Joey declared he took in the wine. How to Triumph over Absent-Mindedness. — Many of the difficulties arising from absent-mindedness in hired help may be removed if the mistress of the house has a habit of making a regular programme for the day's work. A bit of personal experience may not be amiss. I had a girl who was one of the most obliging persons I ever saw, but she could not remember the common and usual order of the morning's work. Things were always going wrong, unless at just such an hour I appeared in the kitchen and directed that the vegetables be prepared for dinner, etc. At last we hit upon the plan of hanging a written programme of the work to be done, and the order in which it ought to be done, over the sink. This worked so well that when without help I keep up the practice, for I confess to the fact that when I am out of the kitchen my mind is out of it too, and I have wasted some valuable time standing around in corners of the pantry and kitchen trying to reproduce the conditions which gave rise to thoughts of work that ought to be done ; but with the help of the programme made out the night before, and changed as circumstances seem to require next morning, have been able to do many things which otherwise would have been forgotten, or remembered when it was too late or very inconvenient to do them. Pie-crust will Keep. — Somebody may not know that if she makes more pie-crust than she cares to use, it will keep for a day or two. Sprinkle a little flour over it, and set it in a cool place ; it will be flaky and crisp without being rich. An Economical Crumb-cloth. — A red table-cloth that is too much faded to be used on the table makes a good crumbcloth. Starch it as stiff as you can easily, iron perfectly smooth, taking care to pull the edges straight and even ; pin it to the carpet instead of tacking it, as then it will not be so much trouble to take it up, and you will wash it just as soon as it needs it. It will keep clean a long time, and, even if you can afford a handsome cloth, it is convenient to use this when the other is up to be cleaned. How to Make an Old Japanese Umbrella Useful. — Shut it partly together, then put a wire around the top, tie a ribbon to the handle, and use it for a scrap-bag or a waste-paper bag.

Household hints