to perform the odd services that are to be done in every family, and that girls of fourteen, and even much less, have the capacity to perform. She can clean silver and brass, in the best manner, and rub furniture, so that you can see your face in it.

Mary, at fourteen, can sweep and dust thoroughly, iron neatly, and clear-starch well enough for any lady in the land. She knows, as yet, very little of the culinary art, nothing, perhaps, besides making good tea and coffee, (which, by the way, half the grown up people in the country cannot, or do not,) a pudding, biscuits, cake, or some may-want of that sort.

Mrs. Bond now advances her daughter's domestic studies. The first family must have is good bread. "I shall give the bread-making into your hands for a year to come, Mary," said her mother.-" Few girls of your age have strength to knead a large batch of bread, but you have. It is a healthy exercise, so do not spare your strength. You must be watchful, see that the emptyings are fresh and lively, watch the rising, for that depends something on the weather, and see to the baking-the best dough may be spoiled in the baking. Give your attention to it, my child-you know what I always tell youattention is every thing."

Mary began with a resolution never to fail, but inexperienced as she was, for the first two or three months she did occasionally fail. She never was allowed that prevailing and pestilent

excuse, "I have had bad luck." Sense and morals are involved in making good bread, "luck" not at all.

When Mary's father said to her quietly, "your bread has given me a head-ache, my child," Mary felt almost as much compunction as if she had committed a sin. And when her father said, "Your bread is as good as your mother's, Mary!" Mary was happy.

At the end of a year, Mary was qualified as to bread-making, to preside over a family.

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"Where did you get your potatoes, Bond?" asked one of Mr. Bond's neighbors, who chancing to dine with him, fixed his eyes on a dish of beautiful mealy potatoes. "You gave me the seed-potatoes when we were planting last spring." "Is it possible," replied his friend, "this is of a piece with all Mrs. Bond's luck_in_cooking!" This time it was Mary's luck. Mrs. Bond never permitted that most important of all the vegetables, to be spoiled by bad cooking. Her potatoes were never under-done, nor water-soaked.

At the end of Mary's year's noviciate that is, when she was fifteen-she could roast, broil, or boil, a bit of meat properly. She could make a wholesome soup-that rare compound; could prepare gravies that even a dyspeptic could look at, without shuddering; could draw butter without lumping it, or turning it to oil. We are afraid of taxing the credulity of our readers, but we are too proud of Mary to permit her to be shorn of her beams. We must then state, that she could

make good butter. Yes, go through the whole process, from straining the milk, to putting on the stamp.

Mrs. Bond presented cooking to Mary's mind, not as an art to pamper the appetite, but to minister to health. "A wise and religious person," she said to her child," will soon learn to relish that best which is known to be most conducive to health, simple and well prepared food. We need not deny ourselves the good things that Heaven has provided for us, at least those need not, who have not ruined their stomachs with indulgence or bad food, stuffing with rich cake and sweetmeats, meats drenched in oiled butter, hot biscuits made with old lard, and vegetables infected with cooking butter. God cannot have given us the delicate sense of taste, without designing that we should enjoy it, but let the enjoyment be subservient to health. Remember, my dear child, that without health, the mind and the heart cannot do the work God has given them to do."

We shall have farther acquaintance with Mary Bond, but we would now ask our young friends, if there is any thing vulgar or "degrading" in_domestic services as she performed them? Do they not receive dignity when the energies of the mind are devoted to them? when they are made heart-services by ministering to the happiness and prosperity of those we love?

A Farmer's boy accustomed, at home, to a

neat table and well conducted meal, will not in any way discredit himself, nor be abashed or flurried if he chance, in after life, (as he well may,) to be the guest of the President of the United States. And without even knowing the rules of foreign etiquette, he will preside at his own table with self-respect and propriety.

And a girl, qualified by such a domestic education as Mary Bond's, will certainly carry to her own home, in whatever condition of life it be cast, the sources of true dignity, prosperity and happiness, a moral force, that is to the moral world, what the steam-engine is to the physical.

10

CHAPTER XIII.

SINE QUA NON.

We have now, my young friends, to consider the domestic education of such of you as are the daughters of our rich merchants, successful professional men, or men of inherited fortune. If you are so fortunate as to live in the country, you will probably learn domestic economy from the necessity of your condition. Your opportunities of instruction may not be quite equal to Mary Bond's,. but from the imperfections of our domestic service, from the incompetence of domestics, and the occasional impossibility of obtaining them— either the family-wheels must sometimes stand still, or you must put your shoulder to them.

This necessity, coming only occasionally, may seem a great hardship to you. You will have none of the facilities that Mary Bond has acquired from habit, and a half day's ironing, sweeping, and arranging the bed-rooms, laying the tables, and above all, kneading a batch of bread, will seem a Herculean labor to you.