THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE. 25 



kettle or water-jug, should be carried or handed over 

 any one's head or legs, or over any animal. Our 

 domestics were not often changed, but whenever a new 

 one did arrive it was one of our father's first orders 

 that she must observe this most excellent rule. I 

 remember a new housemaid who had more than once 

 been checked and reproved for forgetfulness of this 

 rule, being taught it in a manner well calculated to 

 impress it upon her memory. She had brought into 

 the dining-room a tea-kettle containing boiling water, 

 and oblivious of the presence of a cat basking on the 

 liearth-rug, she passed the kettle over him, and set it on 

 the hob. " Jane," said our father, with preternatural 

 solemnity, which her conscience warned her was the 

 prelude to some well-merited and terrible rebuke. 

 " Jane, take the kettle away, and see if it is possible 

 that you can bring it in without danger to life, as I 

 have directed you several times." 



Jane, flustered and abashed, executed a retrograde 

 movement, carrying back the kettle to the door ; and 

 then returned with it, and deposited it in place ac- 

 cording to the regulation form, — the doctor severely 

 looking on. Need I say that after that the girl was 

 very careful never to offend in a similar way, and 

 subject herself to what she seemed to regard as a 

 humiliating performance. 



Another rule was never to leave any cutting or 

 sharp-pointed implement, or work with a needle stick- 

 ing in it, on a chair. If any one transgressed this 

 rule, the article was removed to a drawer in our father's 



