On your return, the first glance at the room confirms your hopes, but by a second look your dream of peace grows shadowy. The room is nicely swept, the furniture placed more nearly in the proper position than, for a first trial, you had expected; but there the charm vanishes. Such dusting! It must have been attempted; for you see the mark of the dusting-cloth, as if hastily passed over, or brushed across the plain surfaces of tables, chairs, etc., but looking more as if flies or spiders had run races over them, than like the efforts of a human hand to dust the room. Here and there some one or two articles have been tolerably polished, but wherever there is any elaborate carving, intricate molding, or dainty piece of statuary, requiring extra care, the dust has settled, and lies unmolested in ugly masses, defacing or concealing all the beauty. You summon the girl, trying all the time to school your heart and voice to patience. You show her the dust, and, taking the work into your own hands, proceed to give her practical demonstration of how the work can and must be done. As you pass from one article to another, you explain the injury to furniture and ornaments which will follow careless dusting. Point out how speedily dust hides in the moldings and carvings, and show her how to gain access to all the intricate and troublesome ornamental work. As you proceed she sees how easily and perfectly it can be done; but do not flatter yourself that this lesson, so thoroughly and plainly given, will relieve you from the responsibility of following up your chambermaid with continued watchfulness and reminders. Be prepared to repeat this lesson every week, and at the end of months find the repetition still necessary. If you do not find this so, you may thank God and take courage, for you have secured a treasure which you will do well to cherish. It is because our servants are so inclined to slight this seemingly small, but really very important part of domestic economy, that we think mothers should begin early to teach their little daughters how to dust a room, and polish, by thorough dusting, all the furniture and articles of beauty. Let them take first lessons in learning to keep their play-room and playthings free from dust, and the knowledge thus gained in play will soon be of much practical and valuable assistance to their mothers. We know there are some children naturally careless and flighty, while others are born neat and methodical. This difference is very observable in children of the same family, trained by the same mother, with equal care; and mothers soon understand that one child must be looked after, in every step of her way toward becoming a practical, useful, helpful daughter and woman, more than the other. Such children draw very heavily on their mother’s strength, patience, and hopefulness; but if the child is of an affectionate disposition, in the end love and experience will conquer.