Neighborliness is a quality little exercised in cities, where one may live next door to people for years and merely know their names.  Some people prefer not to know their neighbors, fearing undue familiarity on their part.  The relationship may be a very pleasant one if both parties observe certain restraints.  It is not well to become too intimate.  Nobody wants a neighbor running in at all hours, with or without an errand.  Sometimes to sit on the back porch with a book or paper seems to invite a neighbor to “run over” and the hour’s rest or mental recreation is given over to small talk.

A neighbor has no more right to enter without knocking than any other caller, whether by kitchen or front door.  It is an intrusion, a disregard of the reserve that should characterize neighborly intercourse.  No matter how friendly, friendship will last longer where the forms of decorum are observed.

Borrowing.—­The exchange of “kitchen-kindnesses” should be ventured upon rarely.  By these is meant the plate of cookies or biscuit or doughnuts we send our neighbor on baking-day.  Some families prefer their own cooking.  A woman who had been annoyed by many unsolicited donations of this kind, persisted in though unreciprocated, finally piled the sent-in biscuit rather ostentatiously on the garbage can in full sight of her neighbor’s window.  Other hints had failed, this was effective—­a rather violent remedy, but after all not undeserved.  In case of illness, where one has no maid, or the family must care for the sick, a fresh cake or a tasty dessert may be offered, and will seldom fail of appreciation.  Knowing the circumstances, one need not hesitate over the proffer of a neighborly kindness.

There is little excuse in the city for the borrowing of kitchen staples which is the bane of some country neighborhoods.  A borrowing neighbor is an affliction—­a nuisance which unfortunately doesn’t come under the jurisdiction of the Board of Health.

[778 Mothers’ remedies]

Carriage etiquette.

A story is told of a certain great lady who visited at the court of a reigning monarch on a secret matrimonial mission.  The monarch had three daughters; the emperor of her own country had a marriageable son.  Before overtures were made for an alliance, the lady was to see the three princesses and decide which one should be honored by the proposal.  It was her whim to rely upon “the carriage test.”  She watched the young princesses as they alighted from the royal carriage.  The oldest one descended clumsily, displaying too much of the royal lingerie.  The second skipped out, disdaining the step.  The third descended gracefully and with dignity, and Cupid’s ambassador decided she would make the most fitting empress.

At certain finishing schools, lessons in deportment include training in how to enter and leave a vehicle gracefully.  Stepping out on the right-hand side, the right foot is placed on the step, the left naturally falls on the ground.  Entering, the left foot is first advanced.  In this way the other foot clears the body of the carriage without awkwardness.