every wooden spoon and twirler with a coloured ribbon to hang
by against the wall. In England you hear of ladies who tie every
bottle of scent on the toilet table with a different ribbon, and that
really has more sense in it, because it must be trying to a cook's
nerves to use spoons tied with delicate ribbons that must not be
spoiled. Every housewife has dainty little holders for the handles of
saucepans when they are hot. You see them, all different shapes and
sizes, on view with the piles of kitchen cloths and the various aprons
that form part of every lady's trousseau, and if you have German
friends they probably present you with a few from time to time. I
have never noticed any pictures in a German kitchen, but there are
nearly always _Sprueche_ both in the kitchen, and the dining-room and
sometimes in the hall: rhyming maxims that are done in poker work or
painted on wood and hung in conspicuous positions--

"Wie die Kueche so das Haus,
Reinlich drinnen, reinlich draus"

is a nice one; and so is

"Trautes Heim
Glueck allein."

There was one in the _Lette-Haus_ or some other big institution about
an hour in the morning being worth several hours later in the day,
which would prick our English consciences more sharply than it can
most German ones, for they are a nation of early risers. Schools and
offices all open so early that a household must of necessity be up
betimes to feed its menfolk and children with bread and coffee before
their day's work. In most German towns the tradespeople do not call
for orders, but they do in Hamburg; and a friend born there told me in
a whisper, so that her husband should not hear the awful confession,
that she would never be a good "provider" in consequence. She went to
market regularly, for many housewives will not delegate this most
important business to a cook, but she had not the same eye for a tough
goose or a poor fish, perhaps not the same backbone for a bargain, as
a housewife used from childhood to these sorties. In some towns the
butcher calls over night for orders. The baker's boy brings rolls
before anyone is up, and hangs them outside the flat in one of two
bags every household possesses. After the early breakfast either the
mistress or the cook fetches what is required for the day.

When the good German housewife is not in her kitchen, English
tradition believes her to be at her linen cupboard.

"I am going to write a humble little gossiping bo