It is desirable to keep meat as long as is necessary for it to grow tender, but care should be taken daily to change the position, that the juices may be kept flowing.

A haunch of mutton may be kept with due care from four to six weeks, according to the season. It should be strewed over with coarse brown sugar, to give it the venison flavour, and turned frequently. All poultry, but especially turkeys and geese, are better for hanging from four days to a week after being killed.

Pheasants, grouse, and partridges, are frequently kept for some weeks after the nominal close of the season, and if apparently unfit for eating may be restored by washing in diluted chloride of soda. Or if meat or game be kept too long, the unpleasant smell may be removed by throwing a shovelful of live coals into a pail of cold water, have the meat ready sewed closely up in linen, plunge it into the water, let it remain five minutes; then take it out and dress it directly.

To Preserve Meat from Taint in Hot Weather.

Warm a small plate, place upon it a little creosote, and then put the plate close beneath the meat as it hangs in the larder, with a cloth thrown over both. The vapour from the creosote will form an antiseptic atmosphere round the meat, and preserve it fresh for many days. The same creosote may be used for even three weeks; and the smell of it is so offensive to flies, that they will not enter the larder while it remains there.

To Fatten Fowls.

For a few days give them bran mixed with chopped mutton fat; for a fortnight, if chickens, but turkeys

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CALF'S-FOOT JELLY.

should be fed up for a month. Geese and ducks should be put into a coop, with abundance of clean straw, a trough of oats and a small quantity of gravel.

To Make Calf's-Foot Jelly.

Whether for luxury, or for the sick at home or abroad, there are few families where calf's-foot jelly is not required, and every cook should be prepared to make it properly. In the first place, there should be a jelly-bag made of thick flannel, clean and ready for use.

The gang of feet must be scalded, the hoofs removed, the hair closely scraped off, the feet carefully split, washed, and all the fat removed. Boil the feet in six quarts of water till reduced to half, strain it through a wire sieve, and when cold, remove the fat from the top. This forms the stock.

When wanted, put this into a pan, with three quarters of a pound of sugar, the whites and shells of six eggs beat together, the juice of three good-sized lemons, and the thin outer rind of them, with a pint of sherry; let it heat slowly, and boil very gently for fifteen or twenty minutes, but do not stir it. Take it off the fire, let it stand a minute or two, then pour it into the jelly-bag, which must be suspended near the fire, with a china bowl below it to receive the jelly. If not quite clear the first time, run it through the bag again.

CHAPTER V.

The housemaid and her duties-Making fires-The breakfast-The bed-rooms-The dinner-table-Cleaning-Beds and curtainsCandles and lamps-The housemaid's closet-Household linenReceipts for cleaning.

IN families of moderate circumstances, a maid-of-allwork must keep the house in order and cleanliness, as well as prepare the food; but where the means can be afforded, it conduces to the comfort of the family, and secures the work being properly done, to keep a servant for each separate duty; a cook and housemaid at least are usually employed in the families of the middle classes.

In order that the housemaid should be fitted for her office, she must have a real taste for cleanliness, order, and neatness. She should be tidy in her appearance and civil in her manners. With these qualifications she will certainly obtain good wages, and be duly valued in her situation.

The duties of a housemaid, though numerous, are not fatiguing, and if performed at the right time, and in a proper manner, are not perplexing. Mrs. Hamilton's three grand rules for smoothing household labours will form an excellent guide for her, and ought to be conspicuously placed in the offices of every house.

1. Do everything in its proper time. 2. Keep everything to its proper use. 3. Put everything in its proper place.

These rules are as useful to mistresses as to servants, and should be enforced in the parlour as well as in the kitchen.

If a regular housemaid be employed, it is her duty to keep the rooms in perfect order and cleanliness; but, in

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HOUSEMAID'S WORK.

the first place, she should enter on a well-arranged house; in the next, she should be allowed proper time for her work, and have every requisite to complete it,-brushes, pails, dusters, &c., or it cannot be expected it should be well done; and lastly, every one should aid the scheme of order, by being orderly. Before the family leave the room at night, books and work should be put into their proper receptacles, and as little litter as possible left of scattered threads, pencil shavings or torn papers; and if written papers should be carelessly left lying about, no one has a right to be greatly irritated if the housemaid should have burnt them: unless special orders should have been given her to take care of all such papers.

A housemaid must necessarily rise very early; she can never recover, during the day, a half-hour lost in the morning, and in regular families she is usually allowed to go to bed early.

The first duty is to make ready the room in which the family breakfast, as the cook is expected to take the charge of the kitchen, door-passage, and offices. She must begin with the fire-grate, which, in summer, only requires to be dusted, the hearth swept, and the bars rubbed; the hearth-rug should previously have been removed to be shaken.

If it be weather to require a fire, she should spread a coarse cloth over the carpet before it, bring in the coals and faggots, and the box containing the black lead and brushes, dusters, leathers, and emery cloth, and putting on a pair of thick leather gloves, kept for the purpose, begin her work.

The ashes and cinders must be first removed from the grate, and carried away, except the larger cinders, which are to be laid aside with the coals to lay the fire.

The grate being swept clean out, she should proceed to lay the fire, which is commonly done by placing sticks or faggots of wood at the bottom of the grate with a small quantity of shavings or paper to catch the fire easily. Above the sticks, coals and cinders must be

lightly piled to leave spaces for the air to force the flame through; the pieces of coal should be about the size of an egg. The window must then be opened to make a draught, and the fire be lighted; by this means the smoke is carried immediately up the chimney, and does not fall about the room on the books and furniture. If the family come down early and expect to see a brisk fire, a thin sheet of tin to place on the bars, before the chimney, to increase the draught, will soon cause it to burn up.

But as a matter of economy, if the housemaid can light the fire an hour before the family descend, we can unhesitatingly recommend the following plan.

Economic Mode of Lighting a Fire.

Line the bottom of the grate with a sheet of coarse brown paper. Fill the grate with coals nearly to the top, placing the large coals at the front, the back may be all small ones. Then lay over them some sticks or other kindling, and a few large cinders and fresh coals loosely over the sticks. Light the kindling, the cinders will soon ignite, the coals below will be heated and give out gas, which will take fire in passing through the cinders, and leave very little smoke to pass up the chimney. This fire, if not stirred, will burn for six or seven hours, without consuming the coals.

A housemaid should never be allowed to light fires by carrying fire from room to room on a fire-shovel. It is a wasteful, slovenly, and dangerous practice.

After lighting the fire the carpet must be swept. In some houses a carpet-broom is used daily, but this certainly wears the carpet. It is sufficient generally, after collecting all the threads and scraps lying on it, to scatter over it some damp tea leaves, which have been soaked well in water and dried to discharge the colour, and then to sweep it with a clean hair broom, a process less