For how much of this are mistresses responsible? Has this creed of distrust been learned by experience of injustice or exaction, or is it one of the popular prejudices, which are harder to overthrow than sound and well-established principle ? Of one thing I am certain : Mistresses and maids would more speedily come to a right understanding of oneness of interest but for the influence exerted over the former by Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Robinson, and Mrs. Brown, who don't allow this, and couldn't think of that, and never heard of the other privilege or immunity being granted to servants. Before they would yield such a point, or submit to one syllable of dictation, they would do all their own work, etc., etc. Poor Mrs. Pliable, listening dumbly and meekly, goes home with a low-spirited sense of her own pusillanimity upon her, and tries to assert her authority and redeem past faults by a sudden tightening of the reins, that results in a runaway and general smash-up.

Cannot we remember - you and I, my dear reader - that we may sometimes be as nearly right as those who talk more loudly and strongly than we upon domestic economy, laying down rules we never thought of suggesting; splitting into ninths a hair our short-sighted eyes cannot make out when whole, and annihilating our timid objections with a lordly "I always do so," which is equal to a decree of infallibility? Cannot we make up our minds, once and for all, to be- a law unto ourselves in all matters pertaining to our households ? Mrs. Jones' rule may be good for her; Mrs. Robinson's better than any other in her particular case, and Mrs. Brown's best of all for one in her peculiar circumstances; yet any one or all of them be unsuitable for our use.

Avoid talking about your domestic affairs with people whose gossip on these topics is incessant. You are angry when a whiff of some such discussion as enlightened Mrs. Sterling, with regard to her mistake, is wafted to you through the dumb-waiter or register, an accident that will occur while the tones of the plaintiffs are loud and untrained by education or policy. It is mean and unkind - traitorous, in fact, you say, for them so to misrepresent and revile you - after all the kindness you have showed to them, too! Bridget, Chloe, or Gretchen, passing the parlor-door and catching the sound of her name as roughly handled, may have her own sensations, and draw her own inferences - being human like yourself. It is tiresome and vulgar, this everlasting exchange of experiences about "my girl," and "your girl," and everybody else's

"girl." It is time sensible women ceased, in this respect, to imitate the fashion of the class they censure, and put down the bootless tattle with a strong will. Order your household, then, so far aright as you can by the help of common sense and grace from on high, and let Mesdame3 Jones, Robinson, and Brown look to the ways of their own, and expend their surplus energies upon their neighbors' concerns - counting you out.

(I believe that is slang, but let it stand!)

These worthy and fussy housewives act upon the supposition that all "girls" are cast in the same mould. Being human (do not let us forget that!), the probability is, that there are varieties of the species.

But, if the mistresses are led by their associates, the "girl's" "acquaintances" sway her yet more powerfully. Every conscientious, well-meaning housewife knows what a brake is this informal, but terrible "Union" upon her endeavors to improve and really benefit those under her direction. I have been amazed and disgusted at the tyranny exercised by this irresponsible body over the best servants I have ever seen.

"We would be hooted at, ma'am, if we didn't give in to them," said one, when I represented how senseless and almost suicidal was the course recommended by these evil advisers. "There's not a girl in the town would speak to us if we didn't join in with the rest. It's like a strike, you see - awful upon them as holds back."

Do not, then, my discouraged fellow-laborer, imagine that I am ignorant of your trials, your doubts, your disheartening experiences. If I disagree with Mrs. S-k-n-s-t-n and do not pronounce our servants to be the greatest plague of life, inclining rather to the belief that - always allowing for human nature and the drawbacks I have enumerated - good mistresses are apt to make good servants, it is in consequence of long and careful study and observation of the practical working of Mrs. Sterling's rule. Like begets like. Pleasant words are more likely to be answered by pleasant than are tart or hasty ones. If you would have your servants respectful to you, be respectful to them. The best way to teach them politeness is by example. It should not cost you an effort to say, "Thank you," or "If you please." The habit exerts an unconscious refining influence upon them, and you dignify instead of degrading your ladyhood by being pitiful and courteous to all. If you can only maintain your position by haughtiness and chilling disregard of the feelings of inferiors, your rank is false, or you unfit to hold it.

To begin, then: Be mistress of yourself. Amid all your temptations to angry or sarcastic speech (and how many and how strong these are, you and I know), curb yourself with the recollection that it is despicable, no less than useless, to say cutting things to one who has no right to retort upon you in kind.

"Ma'," says Miss Aurelia in Miss Sedgwick's admirable story, "Live and let Live " - "how can you let your help be so saucy to you ? "

Master Julius, who was standing by, took a different view of the matter.

"If Ma' doesn't want her help to be sarcy to her," he said, "she hadn't ought to be sarcy to them."

Teach your children the like forms of kindly speech and habits of consideration for the comfort and happiness of your domestics, checking, with equal promptness undue freedom and the arrogance of station. It is as graceful to bend as it is mean to grovel.

Learn not to see everything, and, so soon as you can, put far from you the delusive hope that anybody else - unless it be dear old John - will ever serve you as well as you would serve yourself. This failure is attributable to some one of the nine-tenths we spoke of just now. She is a prudent housekeeper who can wink at trifling blemishes without effort or parade. There is one text which has come into my troubled mind hundreds of times on such occasions, calming perturbation into solemnity, and bringing, I hope, charity with humility -

"If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand ? "

But if your hold of the rein be gentle, let it also be firm. Never forget that the house is yours, and that you - not hirelings - are responsible for the disposition of the stores purchased with John's money.

"I was much amused the other day," said an easy-tem-pered lady to me," at a talk that passed under my window between my new cook and one of her visitors.

" And how are ye gitting along ?' asked the guest.

'Oh! pretty well-ish, now,' was the reply. 'I was a-feard, when I first come, that she would bother me a-trotting down into the kitchen so constant. But I give her a hint as how that wasn't the trick of a raal lady, and she's kep' out nicely sence then. You've got to stand up for your own rights in this wurrld, or you'll be trod upon"

Now, it would be throwing away words to reason with a woman like that cook, or a mistress might show that in no other department of labor would such a principle be tolerated - that from the Secretary of State down to the scavenger who empties your ash-pan, every employe who draws wages has an overlooker, to whom he is accountable for the manner in which his work is done and his money earned; and that the fact that she is an ignorant, high-tempered woman is no just cause of exemption. Yet in how many families is this point tacitly yielded, and the mistress admitted upon sufferance to her own kitchen - the room furnished with her money, and in which she hardly dare touch or look at the articles intended for the con-sumption of her own family?

One often hears such remarks as, "It isn't every girl who will stand having the mistress popping in and out while she is at work." When, in any other situation, the very fact of this unwillingness to have the owner of the materials used in that work present, would be strong presumptive proof of negligence or dishonesty. The principle is pernicious from beginning to end, and should not be tolerated for an instant.

It gives me pleasure to state here, that I know nothing personally of this curious reversal of the rights of employer and domestic. I am inclined to believe, if one-half I hear of other housewives' trials be true, that I have been highly favored among American women. My authority in the kitchen, as in other parts of the household, has never been disputed - in my hearing or presence, that is. I have always met with a cheerful reception below-stairs when I appeared there to direct or share the labors of my cooks ; have found them willing to undertake new dishes, and ready to learn my " way," however unlike it might be to their own. As a rule, also, - to which the exceptions have been few and very far between - those employed by me have been cleanly, industrious, kind-hearted, and respectful; patient under inconveniences, and attentive in sickness. I should not, therefore, do my duty, did I not lift my voice in a plea for charitable judgment, just and generous treatment of a class which, however faulty, have much to do and to endure. Mrs. Skinflint's grocer's account may be less than yours, if you adopt this policy - Mrs. Sharp's coal-cellar be better dusted, and the paint in her attic scrubbed oftener; but I believe, in the long run, you will be the most comfortable in body, as in conscience. Your machinery will move with fewer jerks and less friction. Your servants will remain with you longer, and be better-tempered while they stay, if you show that you appreciate the fact of a common humanity; that you owe them duties you are resolved to fulfil during their sojourn under your roof, however mercenary may be their performance of those devolving upon them.

Finally, dear sister, do not add to the real miseries of life by regarding the annoyance of a careless, slothful, or impertinent domestic as a real trouble. Class it with petty vexations which are yet curable as well as endurable, and live above it - a noble, beneficent existence in the love of your fellow-creatures and the fear of God - a life that can not suffer perceptible disturbance from such a contemptible rootlet of bitterness as this. It is only the feeble, the inefficient, or the indolent mistress whose peace of mind is dependent upon such casualties as a breeze, a hurricane, or a sudden vacancy in the department of the interior.

Recollect, when the infliction is sharpest, that brier-pricks are disagreeable, but never serious, unless the blood be very impure.