the family, and then do not change
these except when you have guests. Mamma will have before her the tray
with the cups and saucers, the tea things, and the coffee urn. I hope
you make tea and coffee on the table; it is a graceful occupation for
the house-mother, and insures your always having clear coffee, and hot,
delicious tea, and is, besides, very little trouble once the habit has
been established. A simple French coffee-pot with an alcohol lamp, a
small tea-kettle also with a lamp, a tea-caddy, and a rule always
adhered to, will make these processes simple. Cups and saucers and the
cream-jug, sugar-bowl, and spoon-holder should be beside the mother's
place.

Oatmeal and other cereals, if served on the table at breakfast, should
stand by the sister or brother who dispenses them. It is best to begin
with a fruit course, and, therefore, finger-bowls, fruit doilies, and
plates, with the knives, forks, and spoons needed for this, should be on
the table when the family seat themselves. If you wish to save trouble,
and have the meal pass on in an orderly manner, you may place by each
plate all the knives, forks, and teaspoons which will be required during
a meal. These will be used one by one, always beginning with that on the
outside, farthest from the plate, and as the maid changes the plates for
each course she will remove the knives and forks which belong to that.

Flowers should form a point of beauty for the eye, and decorate every
home table. You do not need many; a single rose or cluster of lilies,
three or four pinks with a few sprays of mignonette, a few stalks of
salvia, a half-dozen asters, with geranium leaves or lemon verbena, or
sweet-peas in the season, nasturtiums, golden and glowing as flame, are
very ornamental. A cut glass bowl, or a clear bowl of pressed glass, if
bright and free from lint, a china vase, or any pretty bouquet-holder
will answer for the purpose of holding the flowers, which must be
removed and replaced by others the moment they become withered and
faded; never keep dying or dead flowers in any living-room, and, above
all, never let them remain an hour on your table. Wild flowers are the
loveliest things for ornamenting the table, and you may have as many of
them as you can mass effectively.

It is optional--that is, you may do as you like about the placing of
food on the table. But I think the prettier way, when it can be done, is
to set the roast on the table for the father to car