We object to no one’s obtaining the full value for his work, but claim that there should be no meddling, no underhand work to buy servants or laborers from another, by the private offer of larger wages. Advertising is open to all, and brings the needed help to you; but if you do not choose that mode of supplying yourselves with laborers, then let the employer be applied to, and if you can give his or her servants better terms than they now receive, there are not many who will not advise them to accept the offer. We do not think that ladies enact any such law, as that “no servant shall be offered a better post than the one now occupied, so long as he or she remains in it”; but we do claim that the good old rule should be as fully recognized in dealing with a neighbor’s servant as in everything else, namely, “Do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you.” XXIX. FALL CLEANING. THE summer is over and gone; cold nights and mornings have so frightened and subdued the flies, that it is easy to hunt them from the house, and by a little extra watchfulness prevent their gaining possession again. The sun, still quite warm and summer-like in the middle of the day, tempts them out from their hiding-places, and they will swarm in at open doors and windows, if unprotected by wire and net frames, in great numbers. Take care that these safeguards are doing duty whenever windows or doors are opened for ventilation or comfort, else the skillful little manœuvrers will soon gain access. Drive them out toward night into the cool evening air. A few really cold nights will free you from these vexatious intruders, and enable you to commence fall cleaning in peace and safety. The danger always is, that this part of fall labor will be undertaken too early. The first ten or twelve days of September are usually raw and cold. The flies, crawling into warm nooks and corners, pretend to be asleep. The housekeeper, forgetting the experience of former years, hastens to get out scrub-cloths, brushes, and all the implements of house-cleaning. Those whose homes are in the city hurry back with the first puff of cold air, believing that flies and heat have both alike departed for the season. But they soon learn that this is a great mistake. These chilly, cold days are usually followed by ten days or a fortnight as warm as midsummer, and generally quite unhealthy. Nothing but real necessity should tempt any to leave the country before they have fully enjoyed the most perfect month of the whole year,--_October_. But whether in city or country, those who attempt to do their fall cleaning in September will have short-lived satisfaction compared with the comfort derived from the same work in October. Flies, spiders, and wasps, if not harmless then, are at least so far disabled as to be easily conquered, and until that is accomplished, house-cleaning on a large scale is wasted labor.