FRIENDLY HINTS TO THE WASHERWOMAN.

ALWAYS have plenty of iron-holders made, that your towels may not be burned in such service; and use an iron rest, instead of a saucer, to save the blanket from scorchings.

Never leave clothes-lines and pegs out all night. Wet clothes should never be left to dry in a sleeping-room, or in an inhabited apartment, as they make the air in it damp and unhealthy. Linen should not be dried on the sea-beach, for it retains so much of the salt matter, as to throw out damp in wet weather, which cannot be immediately remedied by airing at the fire.

Washers should always be provided with little wooden bowls to throw their soap into, which will prevent needless waste. The blue-bag should be squeezed and hung up immediately on being taken out of the rinsing-tub. No more starch should be made than is really wanted. Cinders and coal-dust will do as well as better coal to boil the copper or heat the ironing-stoves; and the clothes-horse should not be left bare of linen while any articles are to be dried or aired, otherwise it will be necessary to keep a fire an hour or two longer for the mere purpose, thus wasting both time and coal, which forecast would save. The best way to make starch is, very gradually to moisten with cold water a tablespoonful of starch; when quite smooth, stir it into a pint of boiling water, with a morsel of white wax, and let it boil gently for several minutes, stirring it all the time. When poured out, cover it with a plate, to prevent a skin forming at top, which is both troublesome and wasteful.

Iron-moulds, or ink-spots, may be removed from linen by holding it on the lid of a metal teapot of boiling water, and wetting it with a piece of sorrel and salt, or with salts of lemon; after which it must be washed in lye.

Mildew spots must be first rubbed with soap, then with fine chalk scraped: then spread the linen on the grass; as it dries, wet it a little, and repeat the soap and chalk if réquired; the mildew will generally come out with twice doing. Greasy spots may be taken out of all kinds of woollen cloths, blankets, scarlet cloaks, or table baises, without injury to the colour, by washing them with gall instead of A pint, mixed up in a good-sized tub of warm water, will be enough for several articles. It will lather up like

soap.

soap. To take off the smell of the gall, rinse every article in several waters; when dry, they should be mangled, and if left under the weight of the mangle all night they will appear as good as new.

If you are troubled to get soft water for washing, fill a tub or barrel half full of wood-ashes, and fill it up with water, so that you may have lye whenever you want it. A gallon of strong lye put into a great kettle of hard water will make it as soft as rain water.

Soap your dirtiest clothes, and soak them in soft water all night; cotton stockings also require it. Use hard soap to wash clothes, and soft to scrub floors. July is a good month for washing counterpanes, blankets, and heavy articles, for they dry quickly, and are consequently of a better colour.

A tidy washer will always scour her copper thoroughly after washing, and clean out and sweep the copper-grate, wash her tubs inside and out, and set them up in their places.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT SOAP.

As soap is an article of constant consumption in every family, rich and poor, it should be used with economy. The best time to purchase it, for such as can lay in a store, is towards the end of the summer. It should be cut, with a piece of fine string, into squares the size for use, and slowly dried and hardened by the air. And what do you suppose is the difference between the consumption of such stored soap and that which is fetched, a quarter or half a pound at a time, from the shop, week after week, just while the water is heating? why, at least one piece in five. Oh! how it grieves me when I see a cottager's child running home from the shop with a morsel of soap so soft, that you could pinch it together with your fingers ;-and a single candle. If once they would make an effort to save the money that would purchase only three pounds of soap and candles at a time, a halfpenny a pound is saved; and when once there is a stock beforehand, it could easily be kept up, getting in one stock under another. But children, if they see plenty, must be guarded against waste; and the store, allotted and divided into portions, must serve so many weeks. Children are apt to dirty their clothes needlessly, and they should be taught to avoid this; and they should not be allowed to leave soap in the

water they wash their hands in; nor, of course, should girls leave soap in their washing-tubs, or even on wet linen.

There is no occasion to use soap in the scouring of boards when wood-ashes can be had; these with fuller's-earth, or even without it, are quite sufficient, and will make tables look well, if properly wetted and scoured the right way of the grain, well rinsed, and dried.

Two ounces of pearl-ash used with a pound and a half of soap in washing clothes will effect a considerable saving.

Esther Copley and others.

THE CLOWN AND THE ACORN.

The following fable will serve to show, that however ready foolish men may be to find objections, yet in the works of Providence every thing is ordered by Divine Wisdom :

IN an oak's spreading shade

A countryman made

His bed, when his labour was done :

He reclined at his ease,

For the beautiful trees

Well shelter'd his face from the sun.

The acorns on high

Attracted his eye,

For they hung in large clusters around:

While pumpkins, a brace,

Grew near the same place,

But both of them grew on the ground.

This silly young man

Always made it his plan,

Like some idle boys I have heard,

To speak without thought;

So, often was caught

In speeches extremely absurd.

He look'd at the oak,

And laugh'd as he spoke,

And this foolish objection did make : "This tree is so tall,

And the fruit is so small,

I think Nature has made a mistake.

"These pumpkins so grand,

Which encumber the land,

On the oak would have made a fine figure,
Which acorns disgrace,

And they ought to give place

To a fruit so much finer and bigger."

Now ceased the poor clown,

And remain'd lying down,

And was idly preparing to doze,

When an acorn behind

Was blown off by the wind,

And down it fell plump on his nose.

That his notions were wrong,

This proof was so strong,

That it startled the ignorant bumpkin;

And, rubbing the part,

He cried, "Bless my heart!

How lucky this was not a pumpkin!"

"Old Friends in a New Dress, or Select Fables from Esop in Verse."

INDUSTRY.

Do not be afraid of work. Activity is favourable to health and cheerfulness, and indolence occasions both disease and discontent. The young are generally active, but activity requires to be properly directed and regulated, otherwise it may be spent on what is mischievous or useless. The innocent plays of childhood are not useless; they exercise both the limbs and the mind. But a livelihood is not to be earned by play; and when parents have scanty means of support

ing their family, it is right that the children should begin at an early age to do something towards their own support. Most children are pleased with the idea of doing this, and having been used to activity every day, and all day long, they think they shall like to be settled constantly at real work. They do not always find this quite so pleasant as they expected. They may be set to do something that they do not exactly like, or be kept at it a little longer than they like, and when they would rather be about something of their own choosing.

Perhaps, young reader, you may have felt something of this already, and have thought it a hardship to be constantly employed at the bidding of others. Perhaps when you begin service you may think you have got a very hard place, and may wish you could change it for one that is lighter and easier, and that would leave you more at liberty to amuse yourself your own way. These are very common feelings with young people when they first experience the confinement and fatigue of constant employ. But take courage, and persevere. Most things are possible to diligence and patience, and among them this is one-easily to become reconciled to your duties. In order to this, you must resolve to take nothing amiss. You must give your mind to what you are told to do; move about briskly, clear as you go, and, instead of brooding over your task till you become discontented and discouraged by thinking how much work you have got to do, cheer yourself by saying, "Well, this is done, and that is done, and done more quickly and rather better than they were yesterday; - on, on! - all the rest will be done in time; my mistress will be pleased, I hope, with me, and I shall have the comfort of feeling that I do not eat the bread of idleness. No, I am not afraid of work—I will give my mind to it." If you are set to do any sort of work you particularly dislike, say to yourself, "Well, never mind; if it is not pleasant, it is a good thing to know how to do it: if I learn now, I shall not have to learn it in future; so let me do my best." Whatever your business is, endeavour to think of something to reconcile you to it. If you can think of nothing else, think of it as a duty, and that to conquer your own inclination for the sake of duty is creditable to you, and pleasing to that God who has fixed your station in life.

I have known some young servants whose daily business was over by five or six o'clock; yet who might be continually