Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers

fix a certain hour, and let nothing but indisposition prevent your being up at the appointed time. By this means your affairs will all be arranged in good season, and you will have time for recreation, in walking, riding, or in reading such authors as will tend to strengthen and improve your mind. Young persons removed from large families often suffer greatly from loneliness, whereas, if they were occupied with household affairs, they would not feel so severely the absence of their husbands while attending to business. Be punctual to the hour that has been fixed on for your meals, and let good order prevail in every department of which you have the command. A mistress of a family is much happier, who knows how every thing is going on from the garret to the cellar. By inspecting every thing you soon become interested, and we all know when that is the case, the most difficult pursuits become easy and pleasant. And with what pleasure will a young wife welcome her husband to his meals, when her conscience assures her that she has done her best, and that nothing is neglected; and how will it lighten his labors to reflect, when absent, that the partner he has chosen, is performing her duty at home. I am fully persuaded that the formation of domestic happiness, is generally laid the first year of marriage: therefore, my young friends, act well your part; if you desire to be treated with confidence you must merit it. If you keep an exact account of all your expenses, there will be less danger of living beyond your income, of which there have been so many lamentable instances. Never buy any thing because it is recommended as being cheap; many cheap things amount in time to a large sum. In selecting furniture, let utility, not fashion, govern your choice; some young persons furnish their parlors so extravagantly, that necessary and useful articles are neglected, for want of means to purchase them. Be persuaded that happiness does not consist so much in having splendid furniture, as in attending