When making the beds, allow the little girl to hand you the pillows; and, even should you stumble over her and them, sometimes, you will do well to maintain the pious pretence that she lightens your work by assisting in tucking in the covers, and in gathering up soiled articles of clothing and putting them in the clothes-bag or hamper.  She will soon learn to dust chair-rungs and legs, and to wipe off the base-board,—­and do it more conscientiously than hireling Abigail.  She may pick bits of thread, string and paper from the carpet, and clean door-handles and window-sills.  One mother, when making pies, places her four-year old daughter in a chair at the far end of the kitchen table, and gives her a morsel of dough and a tiny pan.  The little one watches the mother and attempts to handle her portion of pastry as mamma does.  After it is kneaded, it is tenderly deposited, oftentimes a grayish lump, in spite of carefully washed hands (for little hands will somehow get dirty, try sedulously though you and their owner may to prevent it), in the small tin, and it is placed in the oven with the other pies.  It serves admirably at a doll’s tea-party, and the meddlesome fingers have been kept busy, the restless mind contented, while the housewife’s work is accomplished.

By the time your girl is ten years old, she should be equal to making her own bed, some older person turning the mattresses for her that the young back may not be strained by lifting, and to dust and keep her own little room in order.  Of course you will have to watch carefully, and teach her little by little, line upon line.  A model housekeeper used to say that one should “cultivate an eye for dirt.”  Bear this in mind, and cultivate your daughter’s eye for dust, dirt and cobwebs.  You will find, unless she is a phenomenal exception to the majority of young people, that she will not see when the soap-cup needs washing, or that there are finger-smears on the doors, and “fluff” in the corners.  But with the blessed mother-gift of patience, point out to her, again and again, the seemingly small details, the “hall-marks” of housewifery, which, heeded, make the thrifty, neat housekeeper, and, when neglected, the slattern.  As she grows older, let her straighten the parlors every morning, make the cake on Saturdays, and show her that you regard her as your right-hand woman in all matters pertaining to domestic affairs.  Give her early to understand that it is to her interest to keep her father’s house looking neat, that it is her home, and reflects credit, or the reverse, upon herself, and that it is her duty, and should be her pleasure, to help you, her mother, when you are overwearied and need rest.  She will enjoy play as a child, society and recreation as a girl, all the more because she has some stated tasks.  She may learn to manage the family mending by aiding you in sorting and repairing the clothes when they come up from the wash.  When she is capable of entirely relieving you of this burden, pay her a stated amount each week for doing it.  She will glory in the delightful feeling of independence imparted by the knowledge of her ability to earn her own pocket-money, and take the first lesson in that much-neglected branch of education,—­knowledge of the value of dollars and cents, and how to take care of them.