are as necessary to success as knowing the right materials to use and how to put them together, and every one who can cook a dinner should also know how to clean and keep in good order the stove and all culinary utensils.  Order and neatness must reign in the kitchen as well as in the drawing-room, and it will help greatly to bring about this desirable state of affairs if all utensils are cleansed and put away immediately they are finished with, for it is much easier to wash them then than if left dirty for some time.  As soon as the contents of a saucepan have been dished, fill it with cold water, add a lump of soda, and stand it on the stove till hot; it can then be washed up in a few minutes.  Plates and dishes should at once be put into a bowl of hot or cold water; treat spoons and forks in the same way.  Knives, wipe at once, and clean as soon as possible.  A damp cloth rubbed with Monkey soap will do wonders in removing stains and dust; these, if left for a time, are hard to get off, and the kitchen, which ought to be bright and cheerful, soon has a greasy, dirty look.

Some of us can call to mind delightful old kitchens in country houses, which were a pleasure and a joy to both mistress and maids, where bright copper stewpans reflected the blazing fire on all sides, and metal covers shone like mirrors; while as for “eating off the floor,” one might certainly do it if so inclined, without the “peck of dirt” at once.

How cosy and delightful everything seems in a kitchen like this, and what visions can we not see of home-made bread and cakes, well-cooked joints, succulent vegetables, delicious puddings, dainty dishes of all kinds concocted with skilful fingers!  And why should not these visions turn into substantial realities?  They will do so if women will consider it a pleasure, instead of a degradation, to “look well to the ways of her household,” and establish a system of order and neatness from cellar to garret.  When this happy time comes she will be “emancipated” from many cares and have more leisure to cultivate her intellect than she has now.  Surely “a study which helps” to make cheerful homes and healthy, well-conducted, “prosperous citizens is worth at least a trial.”

CHAPTER XIV.

THE ICE CHEST

“An ice chest!” someone exclaims.  “I should like to know how I am to get that.”  Well, very easily indeed, if there is a will to have one, for then the way is plain.  A refrigerator years ago was perhaps only obtainable by the wealthy, and regarded rightly by others as a not-to-be-thought-of-luxury; but, thanks to the rapid development of scientific knowledge, both ice and refrigerators are now within the means of nearly all.  The Americans in this led the way, and those in the Central States would no more dream of being without ice during the hot season, than they would of failure to take daily supplies of bread and milk.  In almost every home through