er. But it's all practical
enough."

"What do they do the last year, Mother?"

Mrs. Salisbury adjusted her glasses.

"'Third year,'" she read obligingly. "'All soups, sauces, salads, ices
and meats. Infant and invalid diet. Formal dinners, arranged by season.
Budgets. Arrangement of work for one maid. Arrangement of work for two
maids. Menus, with reference to expense, with reference to nourishment,
with reference to attractiveness. Chart of suitable meals for children,
from two years up. Table manners for children. Classic stories for
children at bedtime. Flowers, their significance upon the table.
Picnics--'"

"But, no; there's something beyond that," Owen said. Mrs. Salisbury
turned a page.

"'Fourth Year. Post-graduate, not obligatory,'" she read. "'Unusual
German, Italian, Russian and Spanish dishes. Translation of menus.
Management of laundries, hotels and institutions. Work of a chef. Work
of subordinate cooks. Ordinary poisons. Common dangers of canning.
Canning for the market. Professional candy-making--'"

"Can you beat it!" said Owen.

"It's extraordinary!" Mrs. Salisbury conceded. Her husband asked the
all-important question:

"What do you have to pay for one of these paragons?"

"It's all here," Mrs. Salisbury said. But she was distracted in her
search of a scale of prices by the headlines of the various pages.
"'Rules Governing Employers,'" she read, with amusement. "Isn't this
too absurd? 'Employers of graduates of the A.S.D.S. will kindly respect
the conditions upon which, and only upon which, contracts are based.'"
She glanced down the long list of items. "'A comfortably furnished
room,'" she read at random, "'weekly half holiday-access to nearest
public library or family library--opportunity for hot bath at least
twice weekly--two hours if possible for church attendance on
Sunday--annual two weeks' holiday, or two holidays of one week
each--full payment of salary in advance, on the first day of every
month'--what a preposterous idea!" Mrs. Salisbury broke off to say.
"How is one to know that she wouldn't skip off on the second?"

"In that case the school supplies you with another maid for the
unfinished term," explained Sandy, from the booklet.

"Well--" the lady was still a little unsatisfied. "As if they didn't
have privileges enough now!" she said. "It's the same old story: we are
supposed to be pleasing them, not they us!"

"'In a family where no other maid is kept,'" read Alexandra