Simply _telling_ a servant how you wish the stove managed, or anything else done, is by no means sufficient. To say to the new cook, “Bridget, I wish you to be very particular in cleaning out your range or stove every night before retiring, and have your kindlings and coal all laid ready to start a fire in the morning,” will not secure obedience. The answer will doubtless be, “O yes, mem, I always do that.” Perhaps once in a great while you may find a cook that will do this regularly; for it certainly, if they will only try it, is the easiest way. But take nothing on trust. See with your own eyes before you retire how much this _always_ means. Too often it should be translated, “when it suits my convenience.” Perhaps for a short time it may be done in accordance with your wishes; but keep open eyes, or nine times out of ten, in less than a month, you will be told, “I can’t do anything with the range or stove.” “Have you thoroughly cleaned it out each night as I directed?” “O yes, mem; of course I have.” Now, either go to work yourself and see what is the matter, which is the best way, or send for a man from a stove manufactory to examine. Stand by _with the cook_ to see the results of his examination. Of course the fire must be all out before he can do anything. He will then remove every cover from the top, and most likely find the whole surface perfectly clogged up with small bits of coal and piles of ashes, so that the draught is obstructed; or, if the difficulty does not lie there mainly, he will take out the slide to the pit under the oven, and, notwithstanding cook’s assurances that it is regularly cleaned out, you will find it filled with ashes up to the oven bottom; or the grate has been so imperfectly emptied and cleaned that it is broken, and clogged with _clinkers_, leaving hardly room to make a fire in it. Now you have the whole mystery solved. All the girl’s protestations and assurances of great care in keeping the stove in perfect order cannot longer blind your eyes. A few such examples may not insure cook’s future attention and truthfulness, but they will teach you, that as the _foot of the master_ is the only warrant for large crops on a farm, or successful operations in any pursuit, so the _eye and hand_ of the mistress must ever be most vigilant and effective to secure comfort in the house.