How many would like to try to remove some spots at home, before next lesson? You may report your successes or failures, and we shall try to learn the reasons for them. Next lesson we shall learn to wash and iron this table linen. It will be well to keep it at school until next lesson. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 1. How many spots have you been able to remove? Tell of your successes or failures. 2. See if mother or grandmother has any better recipes than you have learned for spots. LESSON 8 LEARNING TO WASH AND IRON TABLE LINEN OR BED LINEN We have studied many things about cleanliness, and we all know how much cleanliness of clothing and household linen adds to our comfort. We have learned that sometimes we can wear our underclothes without ironing and that towels can be washed and dried and will smell sweet and clean even if not ironed. Table linen, though, must be washed and boiled and ironed to look well. Our lesson to-day is about how to do this. The linen, as well as the cotton, are, as you know, vegetable fibers. They are strong and able to resist heat and the friction from rubbing. They have resistance for chemicals also. So cotton and linen may be boiled, starched, and ironed with hot irons because the fibers are strong. They may also be treated with acids of a dilute nature when necessary to remove spots, as we have learned. For the usual grease spots on the family tablecloths, soak the cloth in soda water to remove grease (one cup of soda--the dissolved solution--to a pail of water, see page 186). [Illustration: FIG. 110.--Mrs. Stark washing out of doors on a warm day. This is the old way. She has just bought a washing machine.] =The processes for washing and ironing.= If the stains have been removed from the table linen, it can then be soaked. Soaking helps to loosen the dirt when soap is added before the soaking. It is then unnecessary to rub them as much, and so materials are saved from wear. These are the processes for washing and ironing: soaking, washing, rinsing, boiling, rinsing, bluing, starching, hanging, drying, sprinkling, pulling, folding, ironing. 1. _Soaking._ Soak the table or bed linens about 1½-hours in cold or lukewarm water. Soap is really not necessary as the linen is not very dirty. All stains should have been previously removed. 2. _Washing._ Wash with soap on both sides, rubbing on clothes board or in washing machine. Use hot water. 3. _Rinsing._ Rinse and soap again to be placed in the boiler. The dirt is carried away by this rinsing.