entirely like the place; or he may have
received orders from his tong to move on--probably the latter. If both
Ah Sing and his tong approve of you and the situation, he will stay with
you for many years. Our present man once remained but two days at a
place. The situation is an easy one; Toy did his work well; the
relations were absolutely friendly. After we had become intimate with
Toy, he confided to us his reasons:

"I don' like stay at place where nobody laugh," said he.

As servants the Chinese are inconceivably quick, deft, and clean. One
good man will do the work of two white servants, and do it better. Toy
takes care of us absolutely. He cooks, serves, does the housework, and
with it all manages to get off the latter part of the afternoon and
nearly every evening. At first, with recollections of the rigidly
defined "days off" of the East, I was a little inclined to look into
this. I did look into it; but when I found all the work done, without
skimping, I concluded that if the man were clever enough to save his
time, he had certainly earned it for himself. Systematizing and no false
moves proved to be his method.

Since this is so, it follows, quite logically and justly, that the
Chinese servant resents the minute and detailed supervision some
housewives delight in. Show him what you want done; let him do it;
criticize the result--but do not stand around and make suggestions and
offer amendments. Some housekeepers, trained to make of housekeeping an
end rather than a means, can never keep Chinese. This does not mean that
you must let them go at their own sweet will: only that you must try as
far as possible to do your criticizing and suggesting before or after
the actual performance.

I remember once Billy came home from some afternoon tea where she had
been talking to a number of "conscientious" housekeepers of the old
school until she had been stricken with a guilty feeling that she had
been loafing on the job. To be sure the meals were good, and on time;
the house was clean; the beds were made; and the comforts of life seemed
to be always neatly on hand; but what of that? The fact remained that
Billy had time to go horseback riding, to go swimming, to see her
friends, and to shoot at a mark. Every other housekeeper was busy from
morning until night; and then complained that somehow or other she never
could get finished up! It was evident that somehow Billy was not doing
her full duty by the sphere to whi