One girl is a good worker, but impudent; another is always willing, but very untidy. This one is neat, but so slow that her work is never finished. That one is unequaled in order and efficiency, but her temper is so uncertain you cannot make a suggestion without risking a storm that quite destroys all the pleasure her excellent work might otherwise afford you. One is extravagant and wasteful; another economical in using materials for your family, but dishonest in appropriating your property for her own benefit. So, in a company of a dozen ladies, one takes up the discourse as the other ends, and, without exaggeration, proves her own trials even more vexatious than her neighbors’. It is possible that the mistress, by searching, may find some slight symptoms of these very defects in her own character. The least said on that side of the question the better, perhaps. But, as we once heard a lady say, “We don’t hire servants for that sort of actions.” But, whatever may be the defects of the mistress, we know there are very strong foundations on which to build the complaints about servants; for it cannot be denied that these “troublesome comforts” have it in their power to diminish the sum of domestic happiness, to a degree which requires much grace and patience to endure with equanimity; and that the power they have usurped is on the increase will not, we imagine, be gainsaid. Once the employés in the family fully understood the position they were engaged to fill in their employer’s house; and knew that certain service was paid for, which must be strictly and honestly rendered, or they would lose their place, and having lost it, unrecommended, would find it difficult to secure another. Once--and the time is not so far distant but that most of us can still remember it--one girl was expected to do the work that we are now compelled to employ three to do. And this one girl did the work, and did it well,--far better than we can hope to have it done now. She was not injured by it; no complaints were made, we mean in ordinary cases,--in every station some may be found who abuse power and cruelly oppress those whom circumstances have placed in an inferior position; but these are only solitary cases; as a general thing there was no ground for complaint. The service was kindly and cheerfully rendered. But now, with three or four girls, the work drags, is imperfectly done, and “the work is too hard” is the constant cry. Why is this? What reason can be assigned for a change so complete and annoying?