A Little Housekeeping Book for a Little Girl; Or, Margaret's Saturday MorningsBenton, Caroline French
General
A Little Housekeeping Book for a Little Girl; Or, Margaret's Saturday Mornings
Benton, Caroline French
Home economics -- Juvenile literature
Margaret put a tablespoonful of borax in the water, rung out her cloth,
and washed out all the inside of the great box, poking a little stick
into the corners, and scrubbing the shelves thoroughly, as well as the
sides and bottom. Then she wiped them dry and the food was put in again
neatly. There had been a small pan of charcoal in one corner, and this
was emptied on a paper and the pan refilled from a bag near by and put
back.
"What do you put black charcoal in the clean box for?" Margaret asked,
curiously.
"Because it dislikes a disagreeable odor, and destroys it at once," her
aunt replied. "We change this pan every few days because it will take up
only so much, while fresh charcoal will keep everything sweet and nice;
Bridget burns up what is not fresh, putting it in the fire when she
wants to broil or toast, for it makes a clear fire without flame. It
only costs a few cents for a large bagful, and we can always have it on
hand.
"Remember to wash out your refrigerator at least three times a week.
This is very important, indeed; if you forget it somebody in the family
may be very ill. If you have not time to wash it out and still sweep the
parlors, let the parlors go!"
Just as they finished they noticed the garbage pail outside the door and
took a look into it. It was nearly empty, so Margaret got a dipper of
boiling water and a handful of washing-soda and put them in, as her aunt
told her, to keep the pail from getting greasy and sour. "The better the
housekeeper the less she has in her garbage pail, and the cleaner it is
kept," she said, as she put back the cover.
"We have still one pleasant thing and one disagreeable thing to do
before we are done this morning; which would you rather take first?"
asked the aunt.
Margaret said she thought she would keep the pleasant one to finish off
with.
"Then get a newspaper," was the reply, "and spread it over the table,
first of all."
"That's the way most kitchen lessons seem to begin," said Margaret, as
she took one from the paper drawer. "'First get a newspaper.'"
"And very sensible, too," smiled her aunt. "It saves so much work if
everything can be carried away and the table left clean at once. You may
go to the closet and bring the box of things for the lamps while I bring
the large one from the sitting-room."
The box proved to have in it two cloths, one of flannel, and a white one
free from lint; a pair of scissors; a round brush with a wire handle,
and a piece of soap.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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