i. Eat slowly and you will not overeat.
ii. Keeping the feet warm will prevent headaches.
iii. Late at breakfast--hurried for dinner--cross at tea.
iv. A short needle makes the most expedition in plain sewing.
v. Between husband and wife little attentions beget much love.
vi. Always lay your table neatly, whether you have company or
not.
vii. Put your balls or reels of cotton into little bags, leaving
the ends out.
viii. Whatever you may choose to give away, always be sure to
_keep your temper_.
ix. Dirty windows speak to the passer-by of the negligence of
the inmates.
x. In cold weather a leg of mutton improves by being hung
three, four, or five weeks.
xi. When meat is hanging, change its position frequently, to
equally distribute the juices.
xii. There is much more injury done by admitting visitors to
invalids than is generally supposed.
xiii. Matches, out of the reach of children, should be kept in
every bedroom. They are cheap enough.
xiv. Apple and suet dumplings are lighter when boiled in a net
than a cloth. Skim the pot well.
xv. When sheets or chamber towels get thin in the middle, cut
them in two, sew the selvedges together, and hem the sides.
xvi. When you are particular in wishing to have precisely what
you want from a butcher, go and buy it yourself.
xvii. A flannel petticoat will wear as nearly as long again, if
turned hind part before, when the front begins to wear thin.
xviii. People in general are not aware how very essential to the
health of the inmates is the free admission of light into
their houses.
xix. When you dry salt for the table, do not place it in the salt
cellars until it is cold, otherwise it will harden into a
lump.
xx. Never put away plate, knives and forks, &c., uncleaned, or
great inconvenience will arise when the articles are wanted.
xxi. Feather beds should be opened every third year, the ticking
well dusted, soaped, and waxed, the feathers dressed and
returned.
xxii. Persons of defective sight, when threading a needle, should
hold it over something white, by which the sight will be
assisted.
xxiii. In mending sheets and shirts, put in pieces sufficiently
large, or in the first washing the thin parts give way, and
the work done is of no avail.
xxiv. When reading by candle-light, place the candle behind you,
that the rays may pass over your shoulder on to the book.
This will relieve the eyes.
xxv. A wire fire-guard, for each fire-place in a house, costs
little, and greatly diminishes the risk to life and
property. Fix them before going to bed.
xxvi. In winter, get the work forward by daylight, to prevent
running about at night with candles. Thus you escape grease
spots, and risks of fire.
xxvii. Be at much pains to keep your children's feet dry and warm.
Don't bury their bodies in heavy flannels and wools, and
leave their arms and legs naked.
xxviii. Apples and pears, cut into quarters and stripped of the
rind, baked with a little water and sugar, and eaten with
boiled rice, are capital food for children.
xxix. A leather strap, with a buckle to fasten, is much more
commodious than a cord for a box in general use for short
distances; cording and uncording is a tedious job.
xxx. After washing, overlook linen, and stitch on buttons, hooks
and eyes, &c.; for this purpose keep a "house-wife's
friend," full of miscellaneous threads, cottons, buttons:
hooks, &c.
xxxi. For ventilation open your windows both at top and bottom.
The fresh air rushed in one way, while the foul escapes the
other. This is letting in your friend and expelling your
enemy.
xxxii. There is not any real economy in purchasing cheap calico for
night-shirts. Cheap calico soon wears into holes, and
becomes discoloured in washing.
xxxiii. Sitting to sew by candle-light at a table with a dark cloth
on it is injurious to the eyesight. When no other remedy
presents itself, put a sheel of white paper before you.
xxxiv. Persons very commonly complain of indigestion; how can it be
wondered at, when they seem, by their habit of swallowing
their food wholesale, to forget for what purpose they are
provided with teeth.
xxxv. Never allow your servants to put wiped knives on your table,
for, generally speaking, you may see that that have been
wiped with a dirty cloth. If a knife is brightly cleaned,
they are compelled to use a clean cloth.
xxxvi. There is not anything gained in economy by having very young
and inexperienced servants at low wages; the cost of what
they break, waste, and destroy, is more than an equivalent
for higher wages, setting aside comfort and respectability.
xxxvii. No article in dress tarnishes so readily as black crape
trimmings, and few things injure it more than damp;
therefore, to preserve its beauty on bonnets, a lady in nice
mourning should in her evening walks, at all seasons of the
year, take as her companion an old parasol to shade her
crape.
[GUARD THE FOOT, AND THE HEAD WILL SELDOM HARM.]