could say this was unjust? and yet, I dare say, the self-styled cook would go back to the kitchen and say, ‘She had never heard of such a thing in her life.’ “I do not remember ever employing a carpenter who could not do what I required of him; not so well always, perhaps, as it might have been done, but still he did it. But how many cooks, housemaids, and nurses have I seen entirely fail in their engagements. It arose, not from inferior capacity, but from the great mistake which the girls had made, in supposing that they could perform the very important duties assigned to them in life, without preparation. A boy who intends to be a carpenter, begins, as early as he can, to observe how the work is done; he spends years in patiently learning one branch of his trade after another, before he asks for wages; consequently, he generally gives satisfaction to his employers, and often remains with one master for many years.” “But, ma’am,” said one, “how _are_ we to prepare our girls for service? Our houses and our ways is so different from gentlefolk’s. I really don’t know what we can do.” “I do not wonder at your saying this; I have often felt for you in this difficulty. I think your houses are not, perhaps, quite so much like gentlefolk’s as they might be. A person with good taste would prefer a clean cottage, any day, to a dirty palace. A bright, clean grate is just as much an ornament to your room as to a lady’s drawing-room; and when you set your eldest girls to clean, if you were more particular about _how_ they did it, many a good lesson might be given. But your principal hope is, I think, in this kind of apprenticeship of which I have spoken. Neither wages nor comfort, so long as the health is not endangered, should be the chief consideration in choosing a girl’s first place. She should go from you with the impression on her mind that the future of her life depends very much upon herself; that what makes people valued, is their being valuable; that wealth is not to be obtained by wishing for it, but by a long, determined course of patient continuance in well-doing, and a resolution not to be daunted by difficulties. “A girl prepared for her work in this way, would feel a self-reliance that would tend very much to keep her from letting herself down to anything low. She would also be in a condition to make, what is called, ‘her own terms’ with her mistress. By this, I do not mean to ask for high wages,—there is no fault to be found with the amount of wages given at the present day; but to ask for those privileges, without which a servant cannot long continue to keep herself respectable. I will tell you what I think a girl, who could faithfully perform her part of the contract, would be justified in asking.