Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper

and Confessions of a
Housekeeper, by T.S. Arthur

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Title: Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper
Author: T.S. Arthur
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4622] [Yes, we are more than
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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