Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines. TRIALS AND CONFESSIONS OF A HOUSEKEEPER. BY T. S. Arthur PHILADELPHIA: 1859. INTRODUCTION. UNDER the title of Confessions of a Housekeeper, a portion of the matter in this volume has already appeared. The book is now considerably increased, and the range of subjects made to embrace the grave and instructive, as well as the agreeable and amusing. The author is sure, that no lady reader, familiar with the trials, perplexities, and incidents of housekeeping, can fail to recognize many of her own experiences, for nearly every picture that is here presented, has been drawn from life. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. MY SPECULATION IN CHINA WARE. II. SOMETHING ABOUT COOKS. III. LIGHT ON THE SUBJECT. IV. CHEAP FURNITURE. V. IS IT ECONOMY? VI. LIVING AT A CONVENIENT DISTANCE. VII. THE PICKED-UP DINNER. VIII. WHO IS KRISS KRINGLE? IX. NOT AT HOME. X. SHIRT BUTTONS. XI. PAVEMENT WASHING IN WINTER. XII. REGARD FOR THE POOR. XIII. SOMETHING MORE ABOUT COOKS. XIV. NOT A RAG ON THEIR BACKS. XV. CURIOSITY. XVI. HOUSE CLEANING. XVII. BROILING A LOBSTER. XVIII. THE STRAWBERRY-WOMAN. XIX. LOTS OF THINGS. XX. A CURE FOR LOW SPIRITS. XXI. A BARGAIN. XXII. A PEEVISH DAY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. XXIII. WORDS. XXIV. MAY BE SO. XXV. "THE POOR CHILD DIED" XXVI. THE RIVAL BONNETS. XXVII. MY WASHERMAN. XXVIII. MY BORROWING NEIGHBOR. XXIX. EXPERIENCE IN TAKING BOARDERS. XXX. TWO WAYS WITH DOMESTICS. XXXI. A MOTHER'S DUTY. CONFESSIONS OF A HOUSEKEEPER. CHAPTER I. MY SPECULATION IN CHINA WARE. THIS happened a very few years after, my marriage, and is one of those feeling incidents in life that we never forget. My husband's income was moderate, and we found it necessary to deny ourselves many little articles of ornament and luxury, to the end that there might be no serious abatement in the comforts of life. In furnishing our house, we had been obliged to content ourselves mainly with things useful. Our parlor could boast of nine cane-seat chairs; one high-backed cane-seat rocking chair; a pair of card tables; a pair of ottomans, the covers for which I had worked in worsted; and a few illustrated books upon the card tables. There were no pictures on the walls, nor ornaments on the mantle pieces. For a time after my marriage with Mr. Smith, I did not think much about the plainness of our style of living; but after a while, contracts between my own parlors and those of one or two friends, would take place in my mind; and I often found myself wishing that we could afford a set of candelabras, a pair of china vases, or some choice pieces of Bohemian glass. In fact, I set my heart on something of the kind, though I concealed the weakness from my husband.